The Furyan's Return
by Starnyx
Summary: Riddick attempts to rebuild his homeworld. But Vaako is proving a greater adversary than Riddick expected. He needs the help of a princess if he expects to ever live free.
1. Prologue

The Furyan's Return: Prologue

_AN: Minor changes made. Grammar corrections 12.31.08_

Ten months had passed since the promotion of the previous Lord Marshal to Full-Dead. In an unprecedented move, a Breeder had ascended to the throne. The Necromongers, as they were known, ceased their ominous blitzkrieg across the universe. And, Helion Prime was released from final protocol thanks for the new Lord Marshall, a moniker he hated. Its citizens began to rebuild their cities in renewed opulence and resumed life as before, except for two people.

Ziza walked freely among the armored-clad warriors who parted like a sea of black beetles. Everyone knew not to mess with the bright frizzy-haired child under penalty of immediate promotion. Most didn't mind the child; it was a novelty since no child had ever walked in the great hall of the Necromonger flagship, Necropolis. In fact, the Necromongers did not procreate in the way Nature intended. Instead they worked their way across the universe collecting converts to replenish the ranks of those brave warriors who went on to UnderVerse. An unfortunate side effect of the conversion process left every Necromonger sterile.

However, since _he_ had come, everything had changed. And, he was now in the bridge of the ship as it hovered into orbit over the ruined world below.

"Riddick!" Ziza burst into the solemn environment of the bridge with her childish enthusiasm, encountering scowls from the older battle commanders. "Are we there yet?... I heard the engines quiet."

"I told you to wait and I'd come get you." Despite the harsh words, Riddick's lopsided grin gave away his amusement at Ziza's enthusiasm. A chuckle rumbled deep in his chest. He scooped her up and set her on the edge of the radar pool which showed an oily gray 3-D representation of the world below. Secretly, Riddick shared Ziza's excitement.

He was _home_, a word he never thought he'd utter in relation to himself. But the homecoming was bittersweet. The ruined world lay below, the victim of the previous Lord Marshal's ruthlessness.

Riddick would have arrived earlier but the aftermath of his ascension had taken several months to resolve. The most immediate consequence was the split of True Believers led by Lord and Dame Vaako. Under coercion from Dame Vaako, Lord Vaako gained a sizable force to follow him, and they were able to usurp several ships in the process. Riddick had let them go; there was no way to keep Vaako and the others as part of the fleet, nor could he hunt them all down without expending a huge amount of his recently won resources. So, he gave Vaako and the True Believers full pardon with the promise that they never return or interfere with the fleet.

But that hadn't been the case. Several times True Believers attempted to ambush Riddick's remaining armada, but never with any success. Riddick, despite his lack of enhanced abilities, outsmarted and outmaneuvered them at each turn and gained the full respect of his crew. However, the message was clear – a non-Necromonger Lord Marshal would not be tolerated by the True Believers.

Yet, the True Believers were not the only ones to leave the fleet. Riddick gave free passage to any Convert wishing to find a new world to return to a normal, non-military life. Few took his offer. Most preferred to remain with what they knew, considering that their worlds had long been destroyed and would take generations to be restored. As long as the people remained, they were loyal to the new Lord Marshal, who hated titles but preferred simply to be called Riddick. And, besides, several Converted Furyans wanted to participate in the rebuilding of Furya, the only chance of having a home, just like Riddick. As the Purifier had been fond of saying – "We all began as something else."

As Riddick and Ziza looked down upon the shifting surface of the monitor, toppled buildings and pastures of gravestones flitted across the scene followed by a larger set of structures making up a sizable city. Furya Majoris, the capitol of the planet, contained the royal palace, municipal buildings, schools, a university, residences and outlying agricultural centers. Also, scrolling by were a mish-mash of ships of every size.

"Is that it?" Ziza's voice carried childish disappointment.

"Yes." Despite Ziza's attitude, Riddick could hardly contain the longing in his voice. From the looks of things, it would take a lot of time and work to rebuild. He just hoped skilled people would come to his call. Every type of skilled personnel was needed except one – mercenaries.

Something brushed against his leg ,and he absent-mindedly reached down to pat its neck roughly. He was greeted by a satisfied growl-purr and a second head nudging his other leg. Riddick let Ziza down and both kneeled to pat and scratch the scaled creatures Riddick had rescued from Crematoria. No one else could touch the animals; they tolerated only other people as long as they were fed fresh meat regularly and as long as no one threatened Riddick or Ziza.

On his way to Furya, Riddick made a last visit to Crematoria to rescue the convicts who had remained when he made a suicidal run to evade Vaako. Due to the damaged communications, the Guild had never been notified that the prison was in the convicts' hands and no one else seemed to miss the jailors. The conditions had been atrocious by the time Riddick had arrived; half-starved and fighting amongst themselves, only a handful of the original inmates remained. They readily agreed to go with Riddick and most stayed aboard the Necropolis in order to find a place on Furya while others made the first jump off-planet they could.

Not only were the inmates alive, so was Eve Logan, the female merc who ran with Toombs' crew. Last time Riddick had seen her, she was half-dead when the fight between the jailors and mercs went bad. Her shoulder had been broken, and she had had multiple internal injuries, but the convicts had nursed her back to health to the best of their abilities and it showed. Eve's left arm had been left virtually useless, having healed crookedly, until the Necromonger medics reset her broken bones. This earned Riddick another loyal follower since the convicts were getting close to slaving her out by the time he arrived. Rumors circulated that Eve shared Riddick's bed, rumors which Riddick seemed uninterested to dispel. Those close to him saw it as a good sign that he was getting over _her_. Even now no one could speak Kyra's name without Riddick being a bad humor for days.

As for Toombs… he never made it past the first riot on Crematoria.

"Commander Toal!" Riddick barked as he stood up.

"Yes, my Lord?" Toal scowling face appeared beyond the scrolling monitor.

The title 'Lord' did not settle well with him, but he accepted for now. And, it kept the mercs off his neck.

"Please escort Ziza back to her rooms and inform Lajjun we have arrived." Riddick hid his amusement as the scowl deepened.

The entire ship knew that Toal secretly hoped to win over Lajjun, but she still grieved for her husband, Imam. And no one blamed her considering a Necromonger killed her husband. More importantly, shortly after she accepted Riddick's offer to join him on the trip to Furya, she'd discovered she was pregnant. It was a difficult pregnancy on top of her grief and the deep space trip. Thus, she stayed to her rooms for most of the journey.

"Yes, my Lord," Toal replied resolutely.

"And then prepare a small squadron for a planet drop. Nothing too big. I want you with me."

Toal nodded and turned to Ziza who, unfazed, grabbed the big warrior's hand and began to skippingly lead the way. She turned to smile brightly at Riddick and wave, but he had already turned to return to his chambers to don his armor, the clacking of his pets' claws sounding through the corridors as they followed.

After strapping on his imperial looking armor, he attached his ever-present blades on top. The faintest of gusts blew the hair across his arms.

"Don't you knock?" he asked without turning.

Aereon materialized behind him. "Doors have little meaning when information travels easily through them. We have arrived." It was more a statement of fact than a question. "I wish to go with you."

Riddick finally turned and carefully looked over Aereon who flitted a few feet away. Riddick's eyes glittered in the low light of his rooms. "Checking up on me?"

"Merely curiosity." Aereon was nonplused.

Since Riddick had ascended to the throne, Aereon had stayed on in an uneasy truce. She worked as a diplomat and advisor as Riddick made his way across the galaxy, stopping to reassure established governments and set up tentative trade agreements for a nation not yet born. But, there was always the underlying hint of uncertainty, of being spied upon. It was only exposed through their playful bantering.

Aereon maintained an easy posture under Riddick's reflective stare. It meant she wanted something, Riddick deduced. What it was could only be revealed if she was allowed to go on-planet. He understood her stubbornness, perhaps too well.

"Sure. Hitch a ride," Riddick said, cheerfully, or as cheerfully as he got.

The small ship with a dozen Necro guards landed in the center of the courtyard of the ruined palace. Toal and Riddick disembarked first followed by Aereon and the guards. They were greeted by several dozen people, would-be settlers attracted by the arrival of their prospective ruler. From the direction of a crumbled fountain a man stepped forward. He was forty-ish, red graying hair was tied into a tail at the nape of his neck. He wore a somewhat regal if not bedraggled tunic of iridescent green with a gold cord over a lithe body that looked to hid a quiet strength.

As the man approached, the Necros moved to surround Riddick. Undaunted, the man continued his way towards the landing party obviously unarmed. For every step the man took, the crowd seemed to surge backward in fear. The man was obviously a spokesman for the group of settlers, so Riddick stepped from between the Necros to greet him.

"Your Majesty," he stammered, "… we welcome you," he smiled pleasantly and bowed at the bottom of the steps of the platform upon which Riddick had landed. "My name is Renaul. I am an archeologist and historian from Begira. We are happy that you have arrived."

From behind his goggles, Riddick surveyed the crowd. So many... Somehow he hadn't really thought they would come.

"Thank you for your welcome, Renaul. Please… just call me Riddick," he said as he offered a hand to help Renaul up. "I am glad to see so many faces here. Is this all the settlers?"

Renaul chuckled, dusting off his pants, and looked back at the crowd who seemed to reflect a private joke. "No, Your Majesty. There are many more. But they are a bit shy of their new ruler."

Riddick saw the fear in many eyes. They had probably heard his reputation and how he defeated the Necros. He wasn't sure if he liked seeing all these would-be citizens afraid of him. Normally, it wouldn't have bothered him, but now…

Renaul was talking, "I was a scholar on my planet – specializing in xenohistory, ancient worlds. Or, what was once ancient, I guess," Renaul looked apologetic. "Might I give you a tour of your home-world?" Renaul said, bowing gracefully.

Riddick realized how little he still knew about Furya despite the small lessons from Aereon. He had been an infant when the young Necromonger warrior decimated his home planet, and the trauma of it seemed to have erased even the faintest memory of that time. And now, an almost child-like glee filled him, a glimmer of joy, alien to him and feeling more like indigestion.

He sensed no deception in the man. In fact, he seemed to be what he said – a scholar, his hands soft from reading and studying. The faint sheen of dust on his clothes more from rooting through archeological sites rather than from heavy manual labor.

"I'd like that," Riddick replied simply.

Renaul bowed once more and waited as Riddick and his party approached.

As they walked the town and Riddick listened carefully to Renaul's quiet but engaging voice, the ruined buildings and debris-strewn streets transformed in his mind's eye into the a bustling city full of scholars, warriors and merchants, of families and communities. It had been a bustling metropolis with public transportation, centers of research, trade and commerce. He imagined proud Furyans walking the streets on their daily business.

As the troupe walked, Riddick noticed the crowds swelled but still held back a healthy distance. Faces of old and young peeked at him from between columns, around street corners and from balconies. The path before him was clear of the swell of people for nearly 100 yards. He was unable to count the numbers in the narrowed streets and behind broken doorways, but he guessed there were almost a thousand settlers and some even looked to be Furyan, the strong cheek bones and distinctive features so similar to Riddick's own.

Renaul's tour brought them back to the palace, saving the best for last most likely. They arrived at the steps that would have led to the great hall. The massive carved doors lay in chunks in front of the opening to the hallway, forcing the party to climb them like boulders and projecting them to the highest point they had reached thus far. As Renaul spoke about the once opulent palace, Riddick casually turned to look back at the way they had come. What he saw forced Renaul's voice to a whisper in the back of Riddick's mind. He swelled with awe such as he had never known.

Below in the courtyard and only broken by the Necro's small vessel was a sea of expectant faces, thousands upon thousands crushing in upon each other. The masses could not be contained in the courtyard big enough to land a battle-cruiser in. Like so many thousands of ants crawling over the crumbled courtyard walls and out into the city beyond, the people murmured among themselves. The droning noise had been so consistent that Riddick had not registered it for what it was.

He turned now to face the crowd fully, and they let out a collective gasp at gaining his full attention. The crowd shifted; some trying to retreat and others trying to get a closer look at the Furyan returned. And, from the crowd on the left a girl come forward, bravely facing the black-clad warrior. She rose up the crumbled steps, carrying something in her hand. Riddick waved off the surging Necro guards and stepped down to meet the girl. She looked to be about 10 or 12 years old, had clear blue eyes, high cheek bones, had a single long blond braid down her proud back. A Furyan child. The realization that Furyans could have survived on other planets and had children startled Riddick.

In the next moment, from the girl's hand was produced a bunch of flowers. Riddick tentatively reached for them, taking them gently in his much larger rougher hand. In truth, they looked more like a common flowering weed, jagged grayish leaves and thick creamy white petals. He looked them over carefully, unaccustomed to such offerings.

The girl smiled calmly at his look of curiosity and said, "From the graves of the Fallen."

Powerful emotions surged in Riddick, and his hands clinched tight, almost crushing the sturdy flowers. He rose to his full height and held the flowers over his head.

"Furya will rise again. And, you will all live as free people, I promise you!" The bellow resounded throughout the courtyard to every assembled person.

The roar that greeted him shook the cobbled steps and shifted the crumbled doors anew.


	2. Chapter 1

The Furyan's Return: Chapter One

NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of _The Chronicles of Riddick_, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR.

In the eight months since Riddick had returned to Furya, the engineers had been successful in rebuilding a good part of the city. Running water and electricity had been restored, streets cleared of debris, critical structures had been rebuilt, and agriculture and commerce had returned on a level marginally better than subsistence. A small market had erupted in the city's center overflowing into down alleyways and roofless buildings. Those who had leftover produce, handicrafts and sometimes out-right junk sold their wares at ramshackle booths. Even the exterior palace structures had been rebuilt and artisans from a half-dozen worlds were working on restoring the interior. However, they knew there would be little to no money for their endeavors. The artists expected the rebuilt Furya to attract wealthy dignitaries from all over the galaxy, lots of plump, ripe patrons for the plucking.

Riddick sat in the dimly lit room that he had made into a study of sorts. Not that _he_ would ever call it that. At a long table of simple wood planks and cinder blocks, he looked over a series of reports on paper-thin hand-held monitors. In the darkest corner was an irregular dark shape that grunted in its sleep now and then. He had kept one of the beasts as a pet and named him Thorn. The other he had sent with Ziza as she and her mother settled on a small farmstead in a smaller city beyond the capitol. Ziza had named hers Jack.

The True Believers were active again. Several blips showed Vaako's most recent attacks. Perhaps the rumors of a rebuilt Furya were making them nervous. Reports showed skirmishes with Believer's raider ships near three system planets, uncomfortably close to Furya. Most of the damage had been on the Believer's side, but the frequency of attack worried Riddick. That and these attacks were close to home, and he was strangely possessive of it.

Most disturbing were several reports that there were no dead left behind. No bodies of Breeders remained as the Believers swept through a territory. What would Vaako want with dead bodies?

Aereon floated into the arched doorway, her calm smile playing across her face as usual. She paused when she saw his scowl. "Bad news?"

"Vaako, again. I had hoped the guy would pick on someone his own size eventually." Riddick set aside the reports and focused on Aereon. Although she had remained on Furya as an advisor, she rarely came into his study on her own. He was curious about her sudden appearance.

She had shown no interest in leaving Riddick's side and he figured she had her reasons for staying. Maybe she was finally ready to leave. The thought made Riddick somewhat uncomfortable. She was the closest thing to a friend he had in this city. He never liked using that word – friend. It still brought about back bad memories.

Aereon shifted closer to the table, glancing over the reports Riddick had been reading. "Are you not worried, Riddick? What if Vaako should reach this planet?"

Riddick eyes glinted across her form. "How do you expect him to get past six Necro battle-cruisers and assorted ships?" He noted her reaction, or rather careful lack thereof. "Or do you know something?"

Aereon was an air Elemental, a race known for being seers. Some called them witches and spies. Riddick had never been that superstitious, but he never trusted Aereon's motives completely. Just because she proved helpful at times didn't mean he had to trust her.

"No... It's just… you have made no arrangements for the future. What if something should happen to you at this… juncture? Who would take over the rebuilding?"

"Awww… I didn't know you cared," Riddick drawled. "Don't worry. I don't have any intention of going anywhere."

"Well… I just thought it would be prudent to discuss succession," Aereon said.

"I'm not a king here, Aereon. I thought I made it very clear," there was an edge of irritation to his voice. Riddick's smiled melted off his face slowly, dangerously. This wasn't the kind discussion he had expected from her. "Why? What's on your mind?" Riddick watched Aereon flit back and forth. She seemed agitated. It was unusual to see her not in control of a situation.

"The Furyan nation was led before by royalty who had clear lines of succession. If you plan for your legacy to continue, it would be advisable for you have an heir," Aereon turned to face Riddick completely now.

Riddick grunted. Talk of dynasties and heirs. He had heard rumblings of this even from his Necro commanders. The previous Lord Marshals had always publicly declared a successor. He understood Aereon's concern. But it was something he had tried not to think about. It was too permanent, too far in the future for his comfort.

After the rebuilding, he thought he might settle down and... What? His professional resume included murder (always in self-defense, not that the courts listened), rape (it wasn't his fault the woman's husband made an inopportune appearance), jail break (of which he was damn good at), and commander of a stolen army (well, yeah…).

But being a regular schmuck with a regular job? That was laughable and he almost laughed out loud at the absurdity of it. The fact of the matter was, he was a fighter, a killer… it was all he had ever been good at. A voice from his past again… _Come on. I'm sure some part of you wants to rejoin the human race… Honestly, I'm not sure how anymore, _he had said then.

Aereon was looking at him now, unmoving. He doubted Aereon was referring to Eve Logan whose company he sought less and less. With the return and rebuilding on Furya, they had seen little of each other and neither seemed to miss it.

"An heir? I've barely gotten a decent shower since we've been here. And, I've been a little to busy for thinking of heirs or succession. Besides, I figured once things were back to normal, I would take a break, let someone else run the show… I am the criminal type, not the ruler type."

Aereon walked a few steps away and began pacing again. "I think you would be wiser to reestablish the governmental structure that was in place before the Fall. Most Furyans remember the monarchy… they remember having a parliament. I'm sure you do not intend for Furya to have dictator forever."

Riddick cringed. "In order to have a monarchy, I would need to declare myself king. I didn't sign up for that. In fact, I didn't sign up for any of this." Riddick's scowled.

"Then why have you done all these things to rebuild?" Aereon's voice sounded like a challenge.

Riddick did not answer but remained brooding in his chair. The same thought had occurred to him before, and even then he was unable to answer it satisfactorily.

After a few minutes had ticked by with neither speaking, Aereon glided forward, closing the gap between them. "If you were to become king, Furya would be truly complete. Your people would be proud once more. And no world could deny the legitimacy."

He knew she was referring to recent diplomatic talks with worlds that questioned Riddick's authority, calling him no more than an illegitimate ruler and refusing connections to Furya.

Riddick remained still, but she could tell he had heard her, and that he was digesting the words through his stubborn Furyan brain.

"In fact, if you married a woman of Furyan royal blood, you could rightfully claim kingship," Aereon's voice was no more than a whisper.

"All members of the royal family were killed in the Fall. Everyone knows that…" Riddick stated, picking his head up to come face to face with Aereon.

"Not all…" It was no more than a whisper. A knowing smile lurked on her face.

Riddick's heart stopped, his breath lodged in his throat.

"What are you saying?" Riddick began to stand. Aereon retreated a few steps again. "What do you know, Aereon?" His heart seemed to beat faster as he tried to make sense of her words.

"One survived, a baby girl… a baby then, now she is… more than old enough to…," she didn't need to finish her sentence.

"How do you know this? Everyone who lived through that time said they were murdered by the Lord Marshall." Riddick's voice now held an edge of impatience and anger. He wanted to surge over the table and squeeze the information from the Elemental who seemed to enjoy her knowledge over him.

"Because…" Aereon hesitated, looking down a moment; then setting her shoulders resolutely and looking into Riddick's fathomless eyes. "Because I saved her." The statement seemed to resonate in the air between them.

Riddick shook with intensity. "What?" he growled. "What did you do, Aereon?"

He had never seen Aereon lose her composure, but it crumpled now, right in front of him, making the implications of what she said appear more terrible. Aereon reached a shaking hand out to a chair and guided herself down, solidifying almost completely.

"You know that over 30 years ago, the young Necromonger warrior sought the visions of a seer. He was impatient to know his Fate and he was none too happy to hear that a child would destroy him. So, he launched his strike on Furya, killing all the boy children and slaughtering anyone who stood in his way – men, women, children, royal and common alike."

"Tell me something I don't know…" Riddick's impatience rang through his gritted teeth. Thorn raised his head, chittering with agitation at his master's anger.

Aereon faced Riddick again and said, "That seer… was me."

Riddick's face was a mask of fury. "Do you realize what you are telling me?"

"I did not calculate his… reaction." Her eyes glistened and she swallowed. "I had no idea of his plans," she stated strongly, but her voice wavered. "When I found out what he was planning to do, I came to Furya. I don't know why; I was one Elemental and he was already a Necro captain with a legion to command. But I came anyway, if only too late. He had already begun his massacre." Tears ran freely now down her majestic cheeks. "I warned many. I helped them retreat off-world in my small ship. But… I was too late to help the royal family. He had killed them first, the entire household."

"You mentioned a baby…" Riddick was clenching and unclenching his fists in an exercise of self-control.

"Her nanny was an Elemental, an Earth Elemental. She protected her with her own body. The woman played dead, and concealed the baby who miraculously remained quiet. I found them last, covered in blood and the nanny near death. I took them both to the monastery at Kha Murak. The Reverend Mother is a good friend. She took them in." The sentences rolled quickly as if Aereon was eager now to make the whole story be known.

Riddick had begun pacing in short violent bursts. "Why didn't you tell me this before? Why didn't you tell me you were the reason my home, my life were torn inside out!" Riddick yelled now, his voice carrying throughout the stone room and down the hallways. He thought of all those years of running, of doing whatever he had to to survive, and the misery and emptiness he felt in its wake. "_Do you have any idea of the destruction you've caused, Aereon?_"

He turned on her now, and she cowered, sobbing softly. She had never felt threatened by Riddick before, but her guilt made her vulnerable. She could feel the fury exude from his pores and she knew he had every right to be angry. She also knew that her redemption would not come easily, nor had she expected it to. She had known the time would come when he would have to know the truth, and she couldn't justify putting it off any longer.

"I tried to set it right. That's why I sent for you, why the Lord Marshall feared you and –"

"You used me to make up for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people! You played me like a pawn, and you have the gall to do it again," Riddick recoiled from her, a look of disgust plainly on his face. "_No more!_ I bow to no man _or_ woman. You won't use me any more, Aereon. Do you hear me?"

Without waiting for her answer, Riddick turned on his heel and strode out of the room.


	3. Chapter 2

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Two

_NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of The Chronicles of Riddick, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR._

Aereon had made herself scarce around the palace ever since she had revealed her guilt to Riddick. They had not seen each other, nor had Riddick ordered Aereon off-world. So, she waited, hoping and praying that she could somehow make things right, for them and for Furya.

Riddick had been in a horribly awful mood which no one seemed immune from. People knew he and the Elemental had had a falling out, but neither would speak on it. Meanwhile, everyone cleared a large path as Riddick made his rounds and supervised reconstruction. Honestly, he was confused and uncertain. Another new feeling he didn't particularly like. Aereon's words reverberated in his head. Pieces of memory returned to Riddick. He needed some fresh air, and some insight.

He rose early one morning and slipped his bodyguards. He needed to be alone for this. His only company was Thorn. He borrowed a skiff and launch it with only a nod to the deck supervisor who did not question Riddick's sudden lonely appearance. He kept the ship low, avoiding radar and headed west, the opposite direction from which he was really headed. After about 20 clicks he arced the ship to the east chasing the rising sun. It was closer to mid-day when he arrived at his destination, a small farm buttressed by a long winding river and sloping canyon that joined to form a V. Leave it to Toal to look for an easily defensible farmstead.

As Riddick set the ship down gently a ways from the house, a tiny shape bounded from what looked to be a barn and ran to the ship, kinky curls bouncing down her back. She was followed by a dark shape that slunk along keeping close the shadows. As Riddick released the hatch, Thorn jumped free, pouncing on and pinning his mate in an intimate if not violent greeting of grunts and roars. They wrestled in the dust before bounding up and racing for the shade of the trees that bordered the river, nipping and growling joyfully at each other.

"Riddick!" Ziza cried in greeting threw herself at him in a childish hug. "It's been so long. I thought you had forgotten us out here." She smiled a toothy grin, well, except for the one upper-left tooth.

Riddick chuckled. "Forget you? How could I when you've been keeping an eye on Jack for me?" He hugged her back startled at how that simple physical contact helped clear his head so quickly. He realized he truly missed the girl.

He felt his presence before he saw him as a large figure strode directly towards Riddick from the fields. Despite the coarsely woven clothing rather than armor, Toal was still intimidating. The hard work of farm life suited Toal well though since he carried a cheerful smile.

He clasped Riddick's out-stretched hand with both of his large rough ones. "Riddick! Well come. I am surprised to see you. You sent no word."

"It was last minute. I needed to get out of the city for awhile."

Toal released Riddick's hands, his brows furrowed for a moment in concern. "Something wrong?"

"No, no," Riddick half-smiled. "I just needed some fresh air."

"Well, Lajjun will be happy to see you and the baby is healthy and fat." He started guiding Riddick toward the house where a crooning song flowed from the open windows.

It was small single story dwelling more like a cabin with rough-hewn lumber and plaster to fill in the cracks. But inside it was cheery and spacious with a well used kitchen and dinning table where Lajjun was singing to a baby swaddled in square of linen.

She greeted Riddick with less enthusiasm than Ziza and Toal, but she invited Riddick to sit at her table while she set about making lunch for her family and guest. She handed the baby boy to Ziza who carefully showed off her brother to Riddick.

"Mommy named him Imam, so he will always remember his father." Her voice held an old pain along with a child's enthusiasm for the present. "Here, hold him for a moment." And without waiting for a response she deposited the sleeping child in Riddick's lap and ran to a hallway off the main room.

Riddick was startled into picking up the squirming bundle which yawned and shook his tiny fist. The chubby dark face had a sparse scattering of curly dark hair on his head and a line of drool from the corner of his small mouth. He held up the tiny body so the face was level with Riddick's eyes, examining the miniaturized human features. The tiny eyes flickered open, scanning his new world and finally settling on Riddick's goggles. His face screwed up in concentration and then broadened into a toothless smile at seeing his image reflected back at him for the first time. There was no fear, no tension in the tiny body, he simply kicked and made a gurgling sound of joy. Riddick had never experienced such acceptance.

Ziza returned quickly with a roughly sewn rag doll that she shook at her brother. He turned at the motion and immediately made a grab for it.

The afternoon passed amiably, joking and teasing. All four sat at the plank table for a lunch of a savory blend of meat and something like rice. Riddick updated Toal on the rebuilding of the city, and Vaako's recent movements. Toal explained how the settlement was coming along. It seemed that the local farmers had gravitated toward Toal as the spokesperson and judge for small disputes. The sun was just over it's zenith in the sky when Toal said he had to check the fields and invited Riddick to accompany him.

Once they were a distance from the house, Toal said, "So? What did you _really_ want to talk about?"

Riddick smiled, but he wasn't surprised. Toal hadn't become a commander of a Necro army without being observant. "It's Aereon… she's told me something…" And, Riddick laid out what Aereon had told him without pause. And as he told the story again, the anger he had felt crept into his voice.

As Riddick finished the tale, they came up to the far fence bordering the field. Toal rested a booted foot on a beam of the split-rail fence and kept silent for several moments.

Finally, Riddick turned to see if Toal had heard anything he had said.

Toal took his time answering. "So… you want me to tell you it's a bad idea?" Toal asked all these questions while looking out across his fields to the cabin where Lajjun was feeding some kind of water fowl in a pond and Ziza crooned and the baby laughed. "I know Ziza and Imam are not my children. I will honor their father's memory though and try to be the best father to them I can be. As for Lajjun… she loves me in her own way, but she still grieves for Imam. And yet, I wouldn't give it all this up for the world." He spread his arms wide to encompass the fields, the sky, the house and river beyond.

"I didn't sign up for this… for any of it. Killing the Lord Marshal was for survival, for revenge." Riddick had turned to watch the domestic scene near the house, brow furrowed in remembering that fateful day.

"What did you really expect to happen after that? You would just fly off into the sunset knowing there must have been more Furyans out there?" Toal turned now to face Riddick, but he didn't answer.

"You know… I grew up on farm," Toal said, wistfully. "In fact, it saved me when the Necros came. My father had sent me to irrigate the farthest field. I think he knew with that comet coming there would be trouble." Toal knelt down and scooped up a handful of earth letting it run through his fingers. "My father always used to say that the land is the only thing of real value. You weren't a man until you owned some land and had a family."

"It doesn't matter that Aereon manipulated me, used me to fulfill some ridiculous prophecy?" Riddick asked, but some of the bitterness had diminished.

Toal chuckled. "Where would you be now, Riddick? Back in lock up? Or, still on that frozen world? Protecting someone who had her own destiny to find?"

Riddick flinched at the past tense.

"What happened to Kyra was not your fault. She was trying to protect you; the same you would have done – did do – for her." Toal spoke quietly. He was the only person who seemed to be able to speak about Kyra and not end up with a bruised larynx or broken bones. "Her sacrifice means that you live, _really_ live."

Riddick looked out over the field. He wouldn't kid himself; he'd never be a farmer. He doubted he could even make a good merchant. He had no real marketable skills save one – the ability to lead people especially in a crisis.

"What does it matter how we came to this juncture? Call it Fate, karma, justice… we are each put in a situation we have to make the most out of." Toal began to head slowly back toward the house and Lajjun, Ziza and Imam. "For me, I am thankful that the Necros came that day… I would not have lived nearly as many lives as I have."


	4. Chapter 3

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Three

_NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of The Chronicles of Riddick, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR._

Toal's words reverberated in Riddick's head. Pieces of memory returned to him, images flashed of the woman with the strong cheekbones and glowing hand, a younger Lord Marshal's dark shape moving against a backdrop of fire. Bits and pieces had been returning to him since the first time he saw the woman from his vision. His chest continued to glow and ache from time to time.

Finally, he went to Renaul for some information. It was a bit gloomy as Riddick made his way down the newly relaid stone steps of the palace and out the void where the gates would be installed soon. He had ordered his body guards to remain behind; he needed to do this alone. Despite that, he felt a presence following him through the market place to the university where Renaul had been installed as director. As long as they stayed out of sight, he was too preoccupied to care that someone had disobeyed orders.

Riddick found Renaul in the university library, a corner of which he'd temporarily made into an office. Among the stacks of old tomes and data sheets were old blueprints stacked in careful rows. Renaul proved very useful as archivist and the contractors frequently called on him for old building plans or recommendations on how to accurately reconstruct facades.

Riddick stood over Renaul's empty desk, seeing a large dusty book opened to a faded picture of the university as it was before the Fall. The rebuilding on the university was Renaul's pet project Riddick knew. Riddick flipped through several pages and the enormity of trying to rebuild, find experienced and well-educated professors for every specialty from animal husbandry to civic engineering, let alone find teachers for the elementary and secondary levels was overwhelming. It was times like these that Riddick questioned why he stayed on to rebuild.

"Oh… Riddick! I'm so glad you're here… I have some wonderful finds to show you…" Renaul had entered the room carrying tray of dusty items. He was lost in the excitement of his treasures and started bantering away immediately about the historical importance of the everyday items he had recovered from an archeological dig in the less rebuilt part of the city.

Riddick feigned interested for about 2 seconds before interrupting. "Renaul, I came to see you. I need some… information."

Renaul stopped prematurely at his recitation of how a wrench-like artifact might have been used and looked at Riddick. Something in what he saw made Renaul put down the artifact gingerly and gave Riddick his full attention.

"Of course, what can I do for you, my lord?" It was a reference that Renaul made automatically. Riddick had stop reminding him not to call him "lord."

"The royal family… what can you tell me about them? How did they… perish in the Fall?"

"Ah, well, that is a topic of much discussion." Renaul smiled as Riddick frowned. "It must be the fascination with royalty but there are many theories."

"Theories? About what? I thought all the family members had died."

"Well, that's one theory. Ever hear of Princess Anastasia? It took 80 years to finally find the grave site and authenticate the bodies. Or the Duke of Calambria? He went into hiding for near a century before he returned home demanding the throne back from his brother," Renaul began to banter.

"Renaul, I am in kind of a hurry," Riddick reminded him.

"Yes, yes, sorry." He moved over to a monitor that lit up at a vocal command and projected a hologram of the planet.

Renaul spoke in an assertive voice and the hologram seemed to understand, shifting to a family tree. As Renaul droned on about the history of the royal family and matrilineal lineages, Riddick listened impatiently. It wasn't until Renaul's speech approached recent history that Riddick became interested. The flickering images ran through several images of a woman, the princess who was to become queen. There were wedding pictures, the kind staged for public consumption as well as more personal family pictures.

"There was much debate about which of the bodies in the palace belonged to the family. Some were so badly burned, it was hard to picture what sex they were, let alone who they were." Gruesome pictures of the aftermath of the Lord Marshal's attack flickered by. They were poorer quality than the other photos, more like recon pictures.

"But, the baby's body, the last princess, was not found. I suppose it could have been burned so thoroughly that –"

But Riddick had stopped listening, pausing the hologram at one image, the last royal family of Furya. The man sat in a broad heavy looking chair, short cropped, dark hair, creased, smiling green eyes, a boy, about 5 years old clung to his father's knee, brown hair and eyes more hazel-brown than green.

But it was the woman holding a baby swaddled in linens that he stared at – thin lips turned into a demure smile, glittering blue eyes, long sandy blond hair that was piled high on her head in thin plates, high cheekbones and a long straight nose. A woman's voice rang through Riddick's memory blotting out Renaul's blathering…

_You shall carry the anger of an entire race… _Riddick's chest burned, the pain bringing water to his eyes and a gasp from his lips.

Renaul turned at the sound of the gasp and, looking concerned, asked, "My Lord? Are you ill?"

Riddick caught his breath the next instant and straightened. "No, no… I'm fine. Thank you, Renaul. I need to return now." And without any more explanation turned and strode from the room shaken by the image of the woman who has appeared twice before in his visions – the former queen of Furya. And in her arms had been his future bride.


	5. Chapter 4

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Four

_NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of The Chronicles of Riddick, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR._

Riddick sat on the throne of Necropolis. He hated this place. He hated the pain it stood for and the pain he suffered in it. He listened to the man before him, not reacting.

"… his shadow trailed him. Not – not like it normally should. It flowed, it looked alive. And, he just knelt and touched them… the bodies of the dead." The young lieutenant shuddered visibly. "And, they stood up and walked, like they had never fallen. I saw Davik rise and go with Vaako as if he were compelled by an unseen force. And, I know Davik… he idolizes you, he would never betray you so easily, my Lord."

The young man looked uneasy, more so since Riddick had made no move to speak. He may have seemed calm on the outside, but his mind was racing. So the man continued…

"Those bodies that were… damaged… beyond recognition, he told his men to take them with them. All of them. I don't understand why. They remained… dead, but he took them anyway."

"Very well, Lieutenant Ayden. You may go," Riddick said in an even voice.

The man looked uncertain but strode away still looking very shaken by the report he had just given. He was one of a handful of survivors from a surprise attack on a local planet.

Aereon drifted close to Riddick so others could not hear. "If Vaako has survived a visit to the UnderVerse, he will pose a real threat now."

Riddick waved an impatient hand and her to be quiet, but she had only said out loud what he had been thinking. He hastily rose from the throne and marched towards the bridge, Aereon on his heels.

"Of course, I realize that, Aereon," Riddick said quietly. "He has far more soldiers at his command now. He has the possibility of a limitless army."

"What do you mean?" Aereon nearly ran to keep up with him.

"Think, Aereon… When did Vaako begin to step up his attacks? How many have been reported 'missing' in that time?"

Aereon's steps came to a halt as she mentally calculated from the various reports she had glanced through. Vaako may have thousands at his command by now. She caught up with Riddick again as he entered the bridge and began giving hasty orders.

"You must complete the agreements and alliances now. You have little time to chase down Vaako and your resources are too thin," Aereon's voice held a note of panic.

"I'm not chasing Vaako," Riddick replied and waved Aereon's attention to the scrolling monitor display. The world looked to have very few areas of land fit for habitation.

"Kha Maruk? You have decided then?"

"We need alliances to take out Vaako once and for all. And since the diplomats seem to think I am some kind of criminal, maybe they will respond differently to royalty," Riddick drawled.

Aereon smiled proudly and it grated on Riddick's nerves.

"It is a political arrangement, Aereon. I leave it to you to work out the details, to emphasize the necessity of diplomacy," Riddick spoke firmly, eyes fixed on Aereon.

"Arrangements have already been made." Again, pride tinged her words. "It was just up to you to say 'when.'"

"I should have known…" Riddick drawled. "Elementals can't help but be in the middle of intrigue."


	6. Chapter 5

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Five

_NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of The Chronicles of Riddick, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR._

The planet of Kha Maruk was almost uninhabitable due to the terrain. Huge steep valleys were broken only by occasional jutting monoliths of earth that created plateaus. The plateaus ranged in size from rocky points to areas big enough to land a small ship. The valleys remained lost in mists for most of the year while the plateaus could be broiling and desert-like under the rays of direct sunlight. Some of the plateaus had springs welling mysteriously from the depth of the planet and flowing over the rocky precipices to created stunning waterfalls falling thousands of meters below. It was said small tribes moved through the valleys, unchanged in their traditions for millennia.

It was on the biggest pylon of earth, one that was big enough for not only the temple complex but to land three battlecruisers side by side on, that the Temple of Archives sat. The temple buildings were made of imported pink marble that glowed in hues of red, orange, and flecks of gold in the sunshine. The largest structure was in the shape of a box, open on the inside with meditation and vegetable gardens. Smaller dormitories and classrooms flanked either side of the temple proper. There was even a fenced in area with some kind of small herd animal, pink and hairless and less than a meter at the shoulder. Coops full of some kind of fowl lined another area.

But, everyone knew that the lower levels housed the real treasures. From almost every civilization from the beginning of recorded time were millions of scrolls, tomes, datadisks and holophones. If education was worship to the temple priestesses, then knowledge was their god. And, it was through discipline and meditation that the priestesses retained information. It provided them with the ability to recall information instantly whether learned 10 minutes ago or 10 years ago. It was the primary reason governments from all over the Universe called upon the priestesses to mediate trade disputes, help develop post-coup governments, and even settle military conflicts. The women of Kha Maruk were respected as neutral arbiters. Governments also negotiated for priestesses to serve as teachers, healers and wives. Nobles and leaders found these women of Kha Maruk excellent partners who raised their status. To negotiate for one as a wife or concubine was a mark of respectability and prestige since such an honor was not easily given.

Some of the former temple priestesses had been famous, and infamous, throughout the galaxy. High Priestess Xera was assassinated on the planet of Velon 5 because of her involvement in trying to raise the rights of ethnic Velonese after centuries of domination by other civilizations. Her death mobilized the ethnic Velonese to overthrow their oppressors. She was considered the mother of Velonese independence, and the people had build monuments and named institutions in her honor. On the more infamous side, High Priestess Ayla had always been overly ambitious, so when she was given in marriage to a baron, she was underwhelmed. Within 10 years, she had manipulated her husband to go to war with numerous other lords and eventually crown himself emperor of three system planets. It was no surprise when the emperor mysteriously died only 2 years later, thus formalizing Empress Ayla's rule.

The temple took in orphans as well as high-born daughters whose parents fostered them until the time they would take a throne or be married. It was the temple that Sunara had called home since she had been brought there as an orphan.

Today Sunara awoke sitting straight up in bed, a scream still stuck in her throat. Her body was covered in a sheen of sweat despite the chilly morning air of her dorm room she shared with her sisters. She looked around to see if she had woken anyone else with her nightmare. Someone stirred further down the long narrow room and then everything was quiet. She remained sitting up in bed, eyes closed, and waited for her heartbeat and breathing to return to normal.

The nightmare was always the same. She dreamed of fires and smoke, figures running, the screaming, and shouting. And through it all the big black figures advanced through the smoke and chaos. Each time the terror gripped her and she tried to scream but couldn't. Each time she woke thrashing and sweating. When she was a little girl, the nightmares came every night. But as she got older, they lessened in frequency but never intensity.

Today had been different. Out of the smoke and terror one of the black figures had approached her so that she could almost see his face but for his helmet. She had tried to look closer, to catch a glimpse of the demon's face, but all she could see were eyes glowing darkly like an animal behind the shield. This dream was more disturbing because she had never encountered a darkened figure that was an individual before. Worse was the fact that she longed to see the demon, almost as if she knew him. The liquid silver of his eyes held her and wouldn't let her go, and made the scream stick in her throat.

Then Sunara looked down at her chest; it glowed and ached. Above her right breast glowed an almost perfect handprint. Over the last year the mark on her chest had become brighter. At first she had gone to the infirmary and received a lotion for what the nurse said was a rash. But, after a few weeks it had gotten brighter and begun to ache. She had given up treatment; nothing seemed to alleviate it. With each nightmare it had gotten worse.

It was almost dawn and everyone would be up soon anyway. The remnants of the nightmare was still too strong to go back to sleep. Sunara got up from her simple bed and donned her clothes for the day, a tunic of pale gold, the mark of a high priestess. Quietly, she padded out of the room and made her way to the kitchen where the head chef would already be preparing the day's meals.

The drudges smiled sympathetically at Sunara's bows and murmured greetings. They knew what her early arrival usually meant but no one said anything to her as she poured herself some hot tea. She took a few sips and let the heat melt away the icy chill from her nightmare before beginning her duties for the day.

As she prepared the Reverend Mother's morning breakfast, Sunara hummed a tune, a song she remembered from her childhood but could never really place. The old woman, Bria, who had brought her as an orphan to the temple, her it had been her favorite lullaby as a baby. Sunara smiled warmly in remembrance of Bria. The woman had been old when Sunara was young and had only passed away 5 years ago.

In her reverie, Sunara carried the tray of sliced forest fruits, jinbeast yoghurt and tea into the Reverend Mother's sunroom where she usually chose to take breakfast. Sunara unloaded the tray's contents on the etched crystal table and continued making preparations for tea. It was several minutes before she realized the Reverend Mother was not in the room yet. She waited obediently by the set table and then grew concerned. She had never entered the Mother's chambers without bidding, but now she approached, slowly, listening carefully for any signs of life.

"Reverend Mother?" Sunara knocked gently at the door and heard a rustling.

The door opened abruptly and the Reverend Mother stood as regal as ever if only slightly tired and older looking. Sunara's heart skipped a beat as she stepped back. Her neck tingled and her belly felt hollow. Something was not right.

"I am sorry, child. Had some business to attend to," the Holy Mother said calmly and smiled to reassure Sunara.

"Yes, Reverend Mother. Your breakfast is ready for you." Sunara set about placing the dishes of food on the older woman's dining table, carefully pouring the hot tea.

"Sunara… we have guests later this morning." The Reverend Mother's voice would sound normal to most others, but Sunara had been at her side for almost 15 years. She detected a strain. "Ravienne will take over your class with the acolytes. She has been informed."

Sunara dipped in a courtesy, "Yes, Your Reverence." Company on Kha Maruk did not come as often as it once did. But, Sunara was always made available to serve them. Perhaps, Sunara would finally be given an assignment off-planet?


	7. Chapter 6

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Six

_NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of The Chronicles of Riddick, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR._

The Necro frigate descended on the planet, circling the landing pad. Kha Maruk was green and lush with waterfalls hundreds of hectares tall. The temple glittered is hues of rose, the marble walls reflecting the morning sunlight.

Riddick still brooded behind his goggles over Aereon's smug certainty as she led the way down the ramp and onto solid ground, three Necro guards following in their wake. Riddick did not wear battle armor upon Aereon's suggestion. If he was going to meet his future queen-bride, he should look less like a military commander and more like a suitor, she reasoned. But he still thought the flowing black robes made him more like a holy man than a suitor.

A woman in flowing red robes descended the steps in front of the temple and approached to greet them. She had graying red hair that flamed in the sunlight. Riddick made out a face that looked sun-kissed and creased but seemed to be the same age as Aereon. The woman had a wide smile while she greeted Aereon. They crossed their arms across their chests and bowed from the waist. Once they broke the formal greeting, they instantly fell into hugging each other and laughing.

"Aereon! It's been such a long time," the woman said.

"Malenka, it's been too long. I'm sorry this isn't a social occasion."

Malenka sobered and said, "Yes, of course." She turned to Riddick. "This is the one?"

Riddick didn't appreciate the idea that they had obviously discussed him before.

"Yes, this is Riddick, Lord General of the Necromonger fleet and future king of Furya," Aereon replied.

Malenka bowed formally to Riddick who bent slightly from the waist. "You are well come, Lord Riddick. I am not sure how smoothly your trip will go here, but I am willing to help anyway I can."

"I appreciate your help," Riddick tried to sound enthusiastic, but his replied came out strained.

"I should warn you, my Lord." Malenka hesitated and flickered a glance at Aereon who imperceptibly nodded. "Sunara remembers some things… She has had nightmares since she was a young girl. Her visions include the Necromongers." Malenka nodded to the guards flanking Riddick.

Riddick turned. "Captain, you and your men return to the ship."

The captain looked concerned and confused. "But, my Lord…"

"Do as I command, Captain," Riddick growled threateningly and turned back to Malenka.

She smiled more pleasantly. "Please follow me," Malenka turned and walked back up the steps and down a long hallway to a large simple room with a desk, assorted chairs and some braziers. The door to the office closed behind them.

Malenka took her seat on the far side of the desk while Aereon took the chair on the opposite side. Riddick chose to stand.

"My Lord, you must understand. Sunara knows nothing of her heritage or the circumstances that brought her here. She was a baby, and later was told only that her parents had both been killed in an attack on a distant world. While she's been here, she's become like a daughter to me." Malenka paused. "It might do you well to remove your goggles. It's difficult to have a conversation when one cannot see one's eyes."

"Very well," Riddick said, removing the goggles and was instantly almost blind. His eyes shone brightly with the fires of the braziers.

"Ah yes…," the red-haired woman said melodically. "I have heard of your background." And with a wave of her had, all but the pair of braziers in the center of the room went out. With the light from outside coming through the high stone-cut windows and the braziers, the room was dim but bright enough to see clearly.

Riddick was startled – a Fire Elemental. He had not had a chance to meet any others but Aereon although he knew they existed. No wonder Aereon and Malenka knew each other.

Malenka smiled calmly as Riddick adjusted to the new information.

"Riddick, please… You need to let me handle this. She may be very fragile. If we want to be successful, you'll need to show some patience," Aereon said.

"I know the rules, Aereon. I promised to behave," Riddick drawled. "I'll be patient… for awhile. Time is running out."

They were disrupted by sounds on the other side of the door. Riddick retreated to the shadows on the side of the room just before it opened. In walked a lithe young woman wearing a simpler pale gold robe, but the robe also had a cowl that was pulled up over her head and obstructed her face. She was tall and stood straight as she walked in carrying a tray with glasses and a teapot.


	8. Chapter 7

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Seven

_NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of The Chronicles of Riddick, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR._

Sunara heard all the younger girls chattering excitedly about the ship that had landed. But, when Sunara saw the ship crouched ominously on the landing pad, it made her chest ache anew. All she could see from her view at the window was a darkly robed figure wearing glasses of some kind following a woman in white who seemed to glide across the ground. They followed the Reverend Mother up the steps and into the temple.

Sunara jump back from the window and fled down the steps to the kitchens. As assistant to the Mother, Sunara was in charge of helping serve her guests. With hast, she poured hot water from a large metal kettle into a smaller pot, and set it on a tray with three glasses. As quickly as she could without spilling a drop, Sunara swept up to the Reverend Mother's office where she usually discussed business with visitors.

Just before she entered, Sunara stopped and set down the tray. She wasn't sure why but she felt the need to pull up the hood of her robes. She picked up the tray again and nodded for the young acolytes to open the doors for her. As the room came into a view, Sunara could see the woman in white sitting opposite the Reverend Mother. She assumed the man was the elegant woman's servant and not privy to the meeting.

No one spoke as Sunara set the tray down and carefully poured two glasses of steaming green liquid. Her eyes fluttered up to look at the Mother's face for some clue of what was going on. Yet, the Reverend Mother's face was a mask behind a pleasant smile. Then Sunara titled her face the other way and caught a glimpse of the unknown woman. She seemed to materialize and dematerialize as she sat still in the chair. Sunara was startled to recognize an Air Elemental. She knew the Mother was a Fire Elemental, but her race did not often visit this planet. Perhaps there was a problem on their home world.

Having finished her duty, Sunara set the glasses in front of the Mother and her guest, replaced the pot of the tray and picked it up to leave. The third glass remained on the tray empty.

"Sunara… please sit with us," the Reverend Mother's calm voice said.

Sunara was so startled that she froze for a moment. She had never been included in a meeting before. Perhaps that meant she would really get a chance to travel off-planet.

"Reverend Mother?" she asked uncertainly.

"It's alright, Sunara. Set the tray down and sit." She pointed to the chair next to her guest.

Sunara set the tray on the edge of the desk, smiled politely at the other woman and sat on the edge of the chair, back straight. She pushed back the cowl of her robe to be polite.

"My child, it's time I told you how you came to be here." The smile on the Mother's was calm as usual and also held a hint of something else… Sadness? Pity?

"You've told me, Reverend Mother. My parents were killed by raiders when I was a child."

"That part is true. In fact, it was Aereon who brought you here." Malenka nodded towards the woman next to her.

From Riddick's place in the shadows, he saw the servant girl enter with a tray but could not see her face since a hood covered her head.

But when she removed the hood and he saw her face, it was all he could do stay still. He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands into fists. She had dark blond hair that hung straight down her back. Her face was at an angle to him so he could see part of her profile – long straight nose, high cheek bones and forehead, well-proportioned lips. In fact, she looked familiar.

Aereon spoke in low tones for several minutes with a few comments from Malenka interspersed. Riddick saw the girl's – no, woman's – face reflecting disbelief. Her hands convulsed on the arms of the chair. He could see this was a tough sell, and he couldn't blame her. Finding out you are a princess, the last surviving member of the royal family and are wanted on your home planet had to be unsettling. And, he wasn't even sure if they had gotten to the good part yet – he wanted to marry her to legitimize his rule and reestablish the throne on Furya.

"No! You – you told me they were farmers… the raiders came," Sunara cried out, an edge of hysteria in her voice.

Riddick had heard her voice and suddenly knew why she seemed so familiar. "You carry the anger of an entire race…" the woman had said in his vision. It was the same timbre as Sunara's voice. And with the similar nose and cheekbones, the woman from his visions could have been her sister… or _her mother_.

"Sunara, please, we couldn't tell you sooner. The Necromonger's were still marching across the universe," Malenka's voice held a note of concern.

"NO... It can't be true." Sunara stood up tears in her eyes, face flushed. Her impulse was to run from the room, to run from the words that she had just heard. She had wanted an assignment off-planet, but not like this.

She pivoted to leave the room and stopped cold in her tracks. A dark form she hadn't noticed before was looming in the corner.

Riddick could stand this game no longer. He marched across the room in four easy strides. Sunara saw the dark figure charge at her, yelled and jumped back knocking the tray with its pot and glass smashing to the ground. Then she leaned against the desk, too afraid to run, heart thudding in her chest.

He was so close now he could reach out and grab her by the throat if he wanted to. She wanted to scream and couldn't; it stuck in her throat. His hard face peered at her and she saw them – glowing eyes like an animal. The terror and frustration of the nightmare surfaced, but this time she didn't wake up. She grabbed at her chest, the pain from earlier this morning so intense she could barely breathe.

His next movement was so fast Sunara barely had time to flinch, but he wasn't reaching for her throat. Instead he had reached up and peeled back the top of his robe, exposing his upper chest. Her eyes widened in disbelief. Glowing brightly in his chest was a handprint like the one that had begun to mark her chest.

A buzzing erupted in her head and became overwhelming. It blinded all reason, obliterated all thought until the world turned black, and she lost consciousness.

Everything had happened so fast that Malenka and Aereon were unable to stop what unfolded in front of them. Sunara's eyes rolled up into her skull and her body went limp. As she went unconscious, Riddick lunged forward to capture her slumped body, cradling her in his arms and lowering her to the floor.


	9. Chapter 8

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Eight

_NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of The Chronicles of Riddick, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR._

When Sunara awoke, she felt as if she had been in a crash landing, her body aching, chest tight making it difficult to breathe. The handprint was fainter, but it throbbed like never before. She remembered everything, his eyes burning into her, the handprint shinning in his chest, the overwhelming fear. Even now her heart began racing and a cold sick feeling filled her stomach.

A cool hand smoothed her forehead. Opening her eyes she saw the Reverend Mother's infinitely kind and patient face smiling down on her.

"My poor child…" she crooned. "It's all my fault."

"Mother Superior, please… it's not your fault," Sunara whispered. "I knew you were telling the truth. I could _feel_ it. I just didn't want to believe it."

"I should have told you so much sooner. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I raised you like my own daughter; I didn't want to give that up." Malenka smiled down on Sunara.

Sunara found herself smiling weakly. The Mother Superior had been the only mother she had known. She had felt torn on the occasions when a ship would arrive to take one of the priestesses to her destiny. But no ship had ever come for her, until now… and she knew it was time for her to go. The completeness of it gave her a sense of calm and the glowing mark pained her less.

Sunara grunted in stiff, achy pain as she tried to seat up fighting Malenka's crooning to lie back. "No. I'm fine. Really," Sunara said weakly. "Where is he?" she inquired.

Malenka searched Sunara's face, her eyes roving. "Are you sure?" she asked, quietly.

Such a simple question, such a simple answer. Sunara had never been sure of anything else in her life it seemed. She stood on shaking legs and used all her meditation training to calm her heartbeat and breathing until a serene smile crept over her face. "Yes, Mother."

The Mother Superior led her to a broad dinning room, the room used for entertaining the highest honored guests. Sunara recognized it; she had served dignitaries there several times in her tenure as a low priestess. She steadied herself as she entered the room. Aereon stopped something she was saying in mid-sentence and smiled up at Sunara from the sumptuous cushions. Recessed in a shadowed stood a darker figure leaning against the marble wall, no longer wearing the black cloak but instead dark goggles covering his silvery eyes.

"My apologies…" Sunara started, "about… earlier. Please accept our hospitality." In those words that Sunara had recited hundred of times, she found renewed strength to glide forward. But she jumped as a side door opened and one of the other high priestesses came with a tray of tea, glasses and sweetmeats. Sunara recognized her as one who had taken vows of silence. Having had her job usurped, Sunara sat uneasily on the edge of a winged back chair.

Aereon spoke once the tea had been poured and they were left alone, taking no chances. "My dear… I am sure you are quite overwhelmed… However, time is of the essence." Her voice was gentle, coaxing.

Sunara looked to the dark figured man, but he did not move. "I will do what I can. But… I am not sure what is expected of me."

Aereon's smile grew deeper. "My dear child, as the last of the royal house of Furya, you are the rightful ruler of the planet." She stopped for several breaths, letting the words sink in. "Now that Furya is being rebuilt, your people need you."

A sound in the corner. The man had moved forward a step, looking tense, ready to spring. Sunara stilled her heart again.

Aereon's eyes had flickered to the corner and now back to Sunara, mouth opened and ready to speak, but hesitating. "And… we must secure the throne…"

"Tell her," he spoke in a gravely, impatient voice.

Aereon seemed to falter. "Yes… but first… this is Riddick, the man who is rebuilding Furya, the man who defeated the Necromongers"

Sunara now understood her visions, the Necromongers, the dark lurking shapes and the one with the silver eyes. Not the same creatures. She looked more closely at the man in the corner who now wore a wry half grin. He nodded briefly at her and she understood her destiny lay with the dark man in her nightmares.

"And I am to marry him… to secure the throne for him," Sunara said it calmly, without any inflection.

Aereon looked surprised at the statement. "Yes, child… Then the Furyans will be truly united again."

Sunara searched Aereon's face and then Malenka's; they wore the same self-satisfied smiles. Elementals and their machinations, always plotting and planning. Sunara had never really believed it of the Mother Superior until now, and suddenly she felt her chest burn, this time in anger like she had never known.

"How long?... How long have you two plotted this?" Sunara's voice was so low, her lips barely moved, but everyone in the room could not mistake the anger filled words. Her body was rigid, chin high, defiant.

Malenka looked stricken. "My child… I – we only sought to keep you safe. I spoke the truth… you are like a daughter –"

But Sunara had risen abruptly, fully facing the Mother Superior now. Anger etched in her every muscle, Sunara's voice shook with pain and fury, "More's the pity that you would have used your own daughter to your political ends." She turned to Riddick, who now stood totally at attention several paces closer to the group of women.

"Sir… I accept your proposal of marriage –" Riddick's singular eyebrow raised quizzically "– if you take me away from here… now," said Sunara, ignoring Malenka and Aereon.

Aereon and Malenka had begun to chatter and protest about preparations, protocols, but Sunara had her eyes on Riddick who peeled off his goggles and stepped within 2 feet of Sunara. It took all of her will not to pull her eyes away from the disconcerting silvery ones, but her anger fueled her courage. His eyes searched hers and reflected some of the anger she was feeling. He had gone through the same feeling of betrayal and anger not so long ago and recognized it in the set of her face.

She saw the acquiescence in his eyes and felt a bit of gratitude. "Let me get some things and then we may leave."

"Of course," he said, amusedly and nodded his head in deference as she began to stride from the room.

Malenka rushed to catch up with her. "Please, forgive me… we were never sure this would come to pass. We hoped, yes, but never were sure…"

"Save your placations. I am no longer one of your pawns," Sunara's voice shook and she marched stiffly down the hallway to the dorm room to grab a few spare items, passing through the kitchens where all the women, servants and priestesses stopped to watch their Mother Superior excitedly chase Sunara.

She had almost reached the dorms with Malenka pleading beside her when a great explosion shook them both off their feet. Dust and debris showered them.

"Mother? What is going on?" Sunara cowered against the wall, hands over her head to protect herself from falling debris.

"Find a place to hide. Do not come out for anyone." Malenka suddenly looked determined like when she was dealing with particularly difficult dignitaries. She hopped up after another blast rocked the temple and dashed back down the hall.

Sunara was frozen to the spot. Memories swam in front of her eyes, memories of another time, building shaking, the sky falling… It took all her will power to crawl back along the corridor to kitchens which were now empty as the women had escaped to safety. But there was a place, a place Sunara used to find when she had nightmares as a child, a place warm and comforting. No one ever found her there. She crawled and pulled herself along pushing the fear down long enough to make her way.

* * *

Mortar fire rocked the building while Riddick's commanders yelled into the comms about the Believers' surprise attack. They had managed to follow Riddick's frigate and hovered low in a valley to lob mortars at the temple.

Half his Necro soldiers evacuated the priestesses from the building and to waiting ships that hovered dangerously close to the exchange of gunfire outside. The other half searched the building with Riddick, who stormed from room to room. The soldiers were careful to avoid being directly in his way. After the second time searching the dorm rooms, the soldiers spread out to the grounds searching the outbuildings.

Except for Riddick, who hung close to the large entry hall. Somehow he refused to give up finding some evidence of Sunara. Something inside wouldn't let him quit despite the large chunks of marble falling all around him. Just before Riddick turned to walk back into the courtyard, his chest ached. Under his newly donned armor, the handprint throbbed gently. Riddick headed down a long corridor he had searched earlier, but the throb seemed to lessen. It resumed its ache upon returning the hall. The next corridor he walked down caused the ache to grow stronger, so he quickened his pace and took several turns before entering the empty kitchens. Methodically, he checked all the cabinets and places where he thought a person would fit. Finally, he noticed a large grate in the wall next to the ovens. The bolts seemed to be loose so that the grate could be easily pulled out. Now, Riddick's heart and handprint throbbed in unison.

He wrenched the grate free and saw long dark blond tendrils of hair, the curve of an arm, a huddled body crammed impossibly in the tight space. At first, his heart skipped a beat believing she may be dead.

"Sunara… it's ok," Riddick started.

Suddenly, the body unfurled and seemed to fly from the tight space, clawing his face, howling, arms flailing, a banshee in full force. The woman was wild and enraged, eyes glassy and red-rimmed, but the dirty face belonged to Sunara. Riddick pinned the wild arms to her slight body after his face suffered a few scratches, and then clutched her to him, pinning her body tightly to his to keep her from hurting either of them. Then suddenly, her body went limp, as if surrendering. Great sobs wreaked her body like a child, and Riddick cradled her in his arms. He crouched for several minutes like that, finding himself rocking her, a fierce sense of protection came over him like he hadn't felt in a long time. And, rage swept over him like never before for the Necromongers, for the former Lord Marshal and most especially for Vaako.

Riddick called into his comm-link urgent orders to clear the building immediately; they had taken all the evacuees and wounded they could. Aereon found Riddick and tried to check on Sunara, whose head was buried in Riddick's chest, her body obviously shaking. Riddick only clutched her closer, ducking his head from falling rubble.

As Riddick burst from the side door of the temple with the bundle in his arms, the Necro soldiers fell into flanking positions and Aereon raised her hands. A whirlwind seemed to surround them, deflecting debris and moving with the small group that huddled around Riddick.

Riddick turned briefly to check how many more soldiers were running for the hovering frigate, and stopped. On a balcony in the south-west corner of the building stood Malenka whose hands glowed red. She appeared to hurled balls of fire from her hands down into the jungled valley where Necro ships hovered. The balls of fire were like napalm, sticking to the crafts and burning blue-white, hot enough to melt the outer hulls. It was seconds before Riddick saw a mortar zip toward the balcony and shatter it. In the debris of flying marble, he saw a red clothed figure fall and instantly covered under rubble. He turned back quickly, shielding Sunara's face from the destruction.

Once inside, he took Sunara's limp body to the med-wing, but she clung to him when the medics tried to lay her out on the bed. With unusual delicacy, he peeled her fingers from their bruising grip and calmed her enough to get her to lay back.

"Take care of her," Riddick ordered Aereon.

Once on the bridge, Riddick's orders came quick and brusque. A aircraft carrier moved to intercept the frigate Riddick had flown in on. Smaller flyers detached from it, attacking the Believers and driving them further down the dark valleys. From thousands of sectors away, cruisers responded to an encoded message to fall inline with Riddick's lead ship while other faster crafts pursued Vaako's ships with orders to destroy them on sight.

For three days, Sunara faded in and out of consciousness suffering from what the medics called shock. Nothing Aereon gave her seemed to stop her spasmodic dreams. Fever wreaked her body and made her cry out, breaking Aereon's heart. All Aereon's hopes for saving Furya had gone awry since that fateful day she saw visions of the Lord Marshal's end. She wasn't even sure now if Sunara would be in her right mind, if she survived at all.

Riddick stopped by frequently, always silent, quickly scanning Sunara's face for some change in her condition. He barely acknowledged Aereon, and she was none too eager to gain his attention, so she remained out of his way. She felt the anger still burn in him.

On the fourth day only a quarter of the way to Furya, Aereon contacted Riddick on the bridge. "She is coherent now."


	10. Chapter 9

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Nine

_NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of The Chronicles of Riddick, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR._

_Huzzah! I got two new chapters posted. You'll notice the first 2 chapters were broken up to be more easily readable. _

Riddick had spent most of the day on the bridge, gathering information about Vaako's movements, but it seemed as if he had disappeared. A good portion of the fleet had answered Riddick's call for escort and the priestesses from the temple had been distributed among the ships to provide less crowded accommodations. He had also doubled the patrols around Furya.

Riddick needed more ships. He knew he needed alliances to help push Vaako back, even better, get rid of him altogether. What an irony… he thought taking over the Necromongers would free him from being chased by mercs. Now he had a bigger enemy and one with supernatural powers. The last princess of Furya, the security of their people and Riddick's own neck were all at stake.

He had not checked on Sunara since Aereon had told him she was awake and recovering from shock. It had been automatic, his sense of protection for her. That was disturbing and his mood had been dark since he had found her curled up in a ball in that kitchen. But, he couldn't ignore his future bride the entire trip back to Furya.

When he arrived outside the door of her chambers, he hesitated. Fighting, killing, that was what he was good at. Talking to a woman, let alone a princess, was out of his experience. Before he could change his mind, the door whooshed open.

Sunara stood in front of him, smiling slightly. Her eyes still looked dark and bruised underneath, but she otherwise looked healthy.

"Riddick… please, come in," she stepped aside and nodded to him to enter.

As he entered her room, he noticed that the lights were already dimmed. How had she known it was him? On a console screen was the same image of the last royal family Riddick had seen in Renaul's study.

"I am glad you stopped by," she spoke quietly. "I wanted to… thank you. For saving my life and the lives of my sisters."

"You're welcome. But, I did have my reasons." Riddick grinned.

"Yes, I realize that." Her eyes met his significantly for a moment.

Then she moved to sit near the console and motioned for Riddick to sit next to her. "I was doing some research, trying to understand about my homeworld. It seems so strange to finally say that."

Her fingers flashed over the console and Furya rolled on its axis. She tapped again and the capitol city came into view, a live-feed with people moving like ants through the streets.

"You are done a wonderful job rebuilding," Sunara remarked as the monitor showed the outskirts where building was still continuing.

"It's mostly due to Renaul, the xenohistorian. He knows more about Furyan history than most Furyans."

"Maybe that's true. But, you started it all. You brought the people back to Furya," Sunara said, focusing on Riddick. "Why?"

Riddick was startled. He hadn't expected such a simple question. And, he had avoided thinking about it.

"It seemed the best way to keep the mercs of my back," he replied.

"That may have been true when you gained control of the Necromongers. But, why bring all these people together from farmers to artisans?" Sunara's voice held genuine curiosity. "What do you get out of it?"

Riddick thought that question over, frowning. His whole life had been based on survival. But, Sunara was right – rebuilding was beyond survival.

"I wanted… something of my own. I had everything taken from me," Riddick whispered. "I had nothing left."

Sunara tapped at the console again and what looked like Riddick complete history popped up. The word "escaped" blinked several times in key places.

"I got around a bit," Riddick chuckled.

Sunara smiled. "You have been quite resourceful. I can see how you survived so long."

"It gained me more attention than I ever wanted," Riddick replied.

She typed again and a new image flickered, a planet with three suns. Riddick tensed, but Sunara was focused on the screen.

"The report says there were only three survivors from the crash on the planet, M6-117. It's a wonder anyone survived. It's now listed as _uninhabitable_." As she spoke, she tapped something else and two images appeared looking like they were from ID scans, and the last one a convict's profile view. There were Imam and Jack. The old man looking serene as always. She with her boy-cut hair, trying to look tough.

"I don't want to talk about that," Riddick's voice was stern.

Sunara's head snapped to face Riddick. She saw pain etched in his ridged features and wondered what in the image had caused it.

"I'm sorry…," Sunara said quietly.

"When parents put their children to sleep at night and tell them there are no monsters, they're lying," Riddick's voice dripped with contempt. "Anyone who has been to that ball would know that."

Sunara quickly tapped up a new image. It looked like a surveillance video, Riddick's last battle against the Lord Marshall, Kyra in the background. He had never seen this view before, and he saw clearly now the strain in Kyra as she watched Riddick fight for his life. He saw her dash for the polearm and knock the Lord Marshall down. He forced himself to remain stony as she flew back, body impaled on the spikes of the column.

Sunara saw even more pain in Riddick's dark gaze as he watched events unfold. She looked at the image playing, Riddick bent over the girl. She could see that they spoke but not loud enough for the camera to capture.

"You loved her," was all Sunara said. It was a simple statement. No accusation, just an observation.

And hearing the words out loud ripped at Riddick's gut.

"It wasn't like that," he whispered. "She was… a friend." Even to himself it sounded lame.

"You cared for her deeply. You thought you could protect Kyra."

The sound of _her_ name from Sunara's lips grated on Riddick's ears. There was something wrong with it that he couldn't put his finger on.

"I couldn't protect her in the end." He rose stiffly, and looked down at the video, now paused with the image of Riddick, on the throne, looking over the bowed heads of the Necros. "Anyone who gets too close winds up getting themselves killed."

"It must be a lonely existence." Sunara rose and tried to put her hand on his arm, but he jerked it away.

"I don't want your pity," Riddick spat out, maybe more strongly than he intended. "This marriage is just another way for me to survive. It's a political necessity, so don't go trying to pull some psych bullshit on me."

"As a priestess trained in diplomacy it is that so-called 'psych bullshit' that will help your cause," Sunara said defensively.

"Then use it on those poor bastards we need alliances with, not on me." He barely bit out the last word before he turned and stalked out of the room.


	11. Chapter 10

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Ten

_NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of The Chronicles of Riddick, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR._

The sweat rolled from his body. His sparring partners were drenched and panting, but he ordered them on. Rage fueled Riddick's movements and made them more fluid, more visceral, even with blunted weapons. He welcomed the bruising blows and dealt out twice as many. Finally, with the two beaten sparring partners collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath and mercy, only then did Riddick stop.

He barked at his men for their good work and told them to get cleaned up. That was the closest he could coming to apologizing even though he knew he had taken out more on them than he intended. Once the dimmed practice room was cleared, he wiped the sweat off his aching arms, from his wrinkled brow, and worked on controlling his breathing. He picked up his curved blades, more like talons than knives, and idly twirled them… back, forth, around, over, down. Somehow the singing of the blades always seemed to calm him.

He felt his chest throb once; the handprint glowed brightly then faded. He swung around, blades flashing out to strike but pulled up short.

Sunara's eyes were huge in her still sunken face, eyes on the curved blackened blades Riddick held high. It had been two days since she had recovered from shock. She looked healthy enough but her eyes seemed dimmer somehow, more haunted.

Her eyes shifted to his face and there was no fear, unlike the first time they had met. In fact, the fear was replaced by a stony look, hard and unbending. Riddick lowered his blades, but otherwise didn't move.

"Teach me." His ears strained to hear her words.

It wasn't a question, or a request. It was a command. Riddick's chuckle resounded throughout the hollow room. "Little girl, I don't think you are in any condition to – "

"I am not a little girl," she said derisively. She looked directly at his glowing eyes that saw even better in the darkened room. "Teach me... now... today."

Riddick knew that look well. It was probably the same look that crossed his face many times. Furyan defiance. He also knew that she would not be talked out of it. "Why?"

Her eyes flickered at the simple question. Some of her earlier resolve seem to dissipate. "I watched my family murdered. Even though I was a baby, I remember it all," she shuddered. Her head hung for a moment, and then she rolled her shoulders back and starred Riddick in the eye again. "I might have been helpless then, but I am not now. I was too scared to save my sisters at the monastery" – pain crossed her eyes. "All the people I loved have been taken from me, Riddick. I never want to feel so helpless again," her voice was almost a whisper.

Riddick remained motionless. She wasn't even sure if he had heard her.

"Riddick, show me how to defend myself, how to defend others." Now there was desperation in her voice.

Riddick looked down and remained motionless. The seconds stretched into what seemed like minutes and then hours for Sunara. Her heart thumped and she was sure he could hear it. She didn't know what she would do if he refused her.

Behind Riddick's eyes streamed thoughts of another. She had been a good fighter, one of the best he'd seen. But she wasn't Furyan, and he hadn't trained her. Maybe if he had… Useless thoughts now. No use thinking about what was done and past.

"If I train you, you will do as I say. Without question. Without complaint." His lips barely moved as he spoke.

"Yes, I promise to –"

"And, you will not speak unless I ask a question," he said unapologetically.

Sunara opened her mouth as if to agree, and then quickly closed it. She nodded her head once. Then she could almost see the smile spread across his thin lips and a flicker of gratitude flashed in her eyes.

Despite Riddick's exhaustion, they began their training immediately. Something about his mood made him want to test her, push her to complain and give him an excuse to turn her away. But, she followed his directions exactly, taking only one or two tries before getting the moves correct. They used no weapons, no props. Riddick showed her how to take a fall, take a punch, and get back up. Her smaller, more petite frame doubled over often at Riddick's restrained strikes. Even the cushioning mat felt hard as brick after the first few times he picked her up and flung her down. Each time, she grunted her pain but never asked for mercy.

In many ways, she reminded Riddick of Kyra. He had tried not to make the comparisons between Kyra and Sunara; they were so different in many ways. But in fighting, they seemed very similar yet different. Was that his influence on them? To teach them violence? Yet, where Kyra had a feral quality to her fighting style, Sunara was more graceful. It was almost like a ballet to fight with Sunara.

After three hours, Sunara struggled to stay standing and prayed Riddick wouldn't see how much he had worked her over. He was just showing her how to grab and throw him, but her arms were shaking so badly.

"Enough… for now," Riddick said in an even voice.

Sunara looked into his face to see if she had angered him somehow. But, all she saw was those metallic eyes. She quickly looked away, their closeness and recent exertions making the room overly hot.

"Tomorrow, 2 o'clock. Don't be late." Riddick released her and strode from the room.

* * *

For several days, Riddick and Sunara met in the practice room for four hours at a time. They spoke little and Sunara was careful to obey his original directions, too afraid he would turn her away now. Each day her body ached like nothing she had ever experienced before. Even her meditation and training at the temple had been easier. She soaked her bruised body in the shower every evening, but she never cried out or let Riddick see how much she hurt.

By the second day, Sunara finally mastered enough to throw Riddick on his back in a surprise move. Most of their sparring bouts were evenly matched from then on. Sunara with her smaller body, flexibility and lower center of gravity tipped Riddick off his feet. And, Riddick with his experience and brute strength attempted to immobilize or throw her. He had to get more creative and use underhanded tactics to give her a challenge. She proved a good student, quickly leaning basic tactics for weaponless and armed combat with blunted and padded weapons. She excelled at developing flexibility and improvisation. She did not complain, she never asked for quarter and she dealt what she was given with grace.

One day, the first half of sparring Sunara had to defend herself against other partners besides Riddick. Each time she bested her attacker effortlessly and angered them, so that they come at her more aggressively. The second half of the day was devoted to fighting two and three other combatants at once. After losing the first two bouts, Sunara became more determined. She used a brief meditation to refocus her energy. From then on she beat each team faster each time.

Finally, Riddick called a stop to the day's training and dismissed his officers. They grumbled angrily as they left. Sunara remained behind.

"Now what? What will be tomorrow's lesson?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"What?! I did what you said. I never questioned… I – I learned everything you taught me," she exclaimed.

"Yes, you did. There is only one thing left now."

"What's that?" she demanded.

"Live combat."

"I can do that. Hand-to-hand or –" She moved toward the rack of live weapons, but Riddick was too quick, reaching for her shoulder to spin her around.

"You can't. You forget you are a princess. I won't let you risk yourself unnecessarily."

"If I am a princess, then I could order you." Sunara's glared stubbornly at him.

He just chuckled low in his throat. "You could. And I would refuse. And I would be within my rights, for you own safety."

She knew his was right but she pulled herself roughly away from him and had the strong temptation to stomp her foot like am impetuous child. Riddick could almost read her mind and his sly smile deepened, his eyes glittering in amusement at her irritation. Instead, she lifted her hand to slap his smiling face. A stupid and dangerous impulse considering who she was dealing with. But, her hand never reached his face. His grip was like steel on her wrist and she gasped. It was the first time he had ever really meant to hurt her.

The growl that escaped his throat so low she could feel it rumble in her chest. Her heart thudded and seconds beat by painfully slow. Imperceptibly, her body shifted, drew forward like a new law of gravity. Riddick shifted too, but quickly so that when their lips met it was with a crushing, furious need. His lips were hard on hers, bruising and relentless as he released her wrist and snaked an arm behind her back. She tensed for a moment, the violence alarming. Then his breath was on her lips, his strong arm pulling her close, and she sighed into him.

His tongue pushed past her lips, forcing her to deepen the kiss. Electricity charged between them. His mouth hot and hungry. Her mouth inviting. Their passion building and then settling into the kiss, long, lingering. Sunara whimpered, body bending in Riddick's fierce grasp. Never had she felt anything so strong, so possessive or felt more comfortable in her own skin. Fire erupted up and down the length of her body.

It took a force of will to pull Riddick from her lips. His breath was ragged, heart pounding, eyes glittering in their milkiness. Sunara panted as well, her lips still parted, full and bruised, eyes half lidded, her arms curiously wrapped around Riddick's neck.

"Well, now I know how to get you to shut up," Riddick said thickly, a wry smile tugging one side of his mouth.

Sunara was stunned. She withdrew her arms quickly from around his neck, ashamed that she had displayed such wantonness. Her skinned turned ten shades of pink in her growing awareness.

"You – are the – lowest – crudest – person I have ever met!" She turned on her heel and strode stiffly to the door.

Barking laughter followed her.


	12. Chapter 11

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Eleven

_NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of The Chronicles of Riddick, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR._

AN: I am not totally happy with this segment. I may change it as ideas occur.

Sunara tugged idly on her lower lip with the fingers of her right hand. The roughness of the kiss was still etched in her memory. Her lips weren't swollen anymore, but it had taken longer for the taste of him to dissipate. It had been a combination of something spicy, exotic, salty. She wondered if all men tasted like that. Riddick's kiss had been her first, but she tried to look at it logically, pragmatically. Then why did the memory of it still make her feel a warmth spread down her body?

Aereon's voice was droning on about the coronation and wedding arrangements, the coronation first, followed by the marriage ceremony. That way Sunara would be crowned queen as she married Riddick, granting him instant kingship. The week after would include entertainments and celebrations while the new royal couple worked out treaties. Aereon had already sent communiqués about plans as well as invitations to dignitaries from three galaxies.

Sunara was not nearly as interested in preparations as a blushing bride should be. She understood too well what was at stake. Also, she still felt a tinge of resentment toward the Elemental for her part in this prophecy that had ensnared Sunara. However, with the resentment also came shame. When she last saw the Reverend Mother, she had been angry and hurt. She had spoken harshly and now there was no way to ask forgiveness of the one woman who had protected Sunara like any mother would.

The opening of the door broke Sunara out of her reverie, and she consciously dragged her fingertips away from her lips. Riddick walked in and cocked his head at the women in greeting. Sunara was sure that was a smug smile on his face. She greeted the smile with a glare but couldn't keep a blush from creeping into her face. He peeled off his goggles as the room dimmed in his presence. The bastard's eyes even reflected his smug smile.

"Ah, Riddick," Aereon ignored their exchange, "we were just talking about the wedding preparations. How is security coming?"

"Oh, I don't know, Aereon. It's kind of hard to provide security for nearly 2,000 people," Riddick responded in a humorless voice. He sat the wrong way in a chair he pulled from the desk.

"We cannot afford to give Vaako, or anyone else for that matter, an opportunity. Similarly, we cannot afford to offend potential allies by _not_ inviting them," Aereon explained.

"I know the reasoning, Aereon," Riddick sounded annoyed. "I am concerned about the resources. We are stretched thin as it is, and we've only just begun taxing people. It will be the wedding of the century and bankrupt us simultaneously."

Sunara couldn't help but smile at Riddick's point of irony. She had been thinking along the same lines as well. She knew that much of the work being done on Furya was the result of people volunteering their talents. It was how her wedding dress and the celebratory feast were being furnished. Riddick was right about one thing; it would be the wedding of the century and anyone whose name was attached to it would get accolades for decades to come.

"We have to make some sacrifices in the short term to gain in the long term," Sunara finally said. "There are plenty of other resources we haven't considered."

Aereon raised an eyebrow.

Riddick said, "Oh? Pray tell, where are you hiding these resources?" His eyes traveled appreciatively over Sunara's body looking for some sort of hiding place.

Sunara had taken to wearing the same black leggings and tank top that she had used for their practice sessions. Her temple robes had been unsalvageable, but Aereon had pieced together a few items for the journey to Furya, but there would be entire closets of clothes she could choose from there. For now, she liked the tight fitting clothes for sparring; they allowed free movement. It also made her resemble Riddick, if not a slender, lither version. Today she wore one of Aereon's gauzy robes over the top of her outfit, but it did nothing to hide her curves which Riddick could appreciate.

Sunara shifted uncomfortably on the lounger and said, "On these ships right now. The surviving priestesses of the temple," she said simply. The knowledge registered on Aereon's face, but Riddick's brows were furrowed.

"She's right. There are plenty of girls whose parents would be ecstatic of their return and perhaps feel generous as well," Aereon said slyly.

"Hold them ransom?" Riddick said, shocked at the women's suggestion.

Sunara laughed. It was the first time Riddick had heard it. It wasn't unpleasant.

"No, of course not. But understand… For these kinds of people, money buys everything, loyalty, silence, alliances. We could kill two birds with one stone," Sunara said, smiling now. "We invite them to Furya to recover their daughters and for the celebration. They willingly _show_ their thanks and we win some support."

Riddick looked between the two smiling women. Apparently, he just didn't understand how politics worked because it sounded very close to ransom to him.

"There were nearly 1,500 priestesses in residence at the temple. You evacuated almost 1,000 of them," Sunara said with a hint of sadness. "Nearly two-thirds of them should have families."

"And, they haven't been notified yet of the attack on the temple or the safety of their children," Aereon said brightly. "I think I should get around to that, don't you?" She smiled at Sunara, and then Riddick.

Without another word, she rose in a flutter and left to the room. In her absence, Sunara kept her eyes on the table, avoiding Riddick's gaze.

"I would like to rebuild the temple, eventually," she said quietly.

"I'll add that to my to-do list," he responded, amused.

The glare she gave Riddick told him she was hurt by his response. "I understand, Nara," he said more gently.

She smiled weakly at his nickname for her. "Thank you."

That threw him off; few people had ever thanked him.

"I know it isn't a priority. But, it would be advantageous to have a temple on Furya. We'll have to recover what we can from the libraries at Kha Maruk," she said, lost in her train of thought. "All that history lost… It may take years to recover it all."

"Nara." There was something in his voice that compelled her to look at his eyes.

Riddick rose from the chair and stepped across the room. He held his hand out to her as she sat. Curiously, she looked at it, wondering what trick this was. But, he simply stood, hand out, smile playing across his lips. It was his lips Sunara focused on as she took the offered hand. Damn his lips.

He pulled her up to a standing position, but didn't release her hand. "I wanted to apologize."

Sunara's brows knitted in confusion. "For what?"

Riddick's smile deepened. "For the kiss yesterday."

Sunara stiffened and tried to draw back. His hand held hers tight.

"Oh. It – it was nothing, really," she replied hastily. A blush stole into her cheeks and the room got about 10 degrees warmer instantly.

"No, it wasn't nothing. A first kiss should be memorable."

Her head snapped up, eyes widened and locked onto his silvery ones. "How did you know that?"

The chuckle that greeted her question started in his belly. "I just found out. But, I hope the second one is more remarkable."

Sunara was too stunned to protest. Her eyes were glued to his lips in time to see them lower toward hers.

There was less urgency this time. Riddick's lips simply pressed against hers, and she could feel their unusual softness. His hand let hers go to grip her waist, but nothing else. He let her reaction dictate the progress of the kiss.

It didn't take long before she pressed her lips harder against his. Her body stepped in closer so that she could feel the thudding of his heart against her breast. Finally, she sighed and opened her lips, tongue gingerly exploring his lips and coaxing them to receive her. In a low growl, his lips parted, but still he restrained himself, meeting her probing tongue gently.

Sunara's head swam and her heart beat a mile a minute. There was that taste again of exotic spices and the salt of hard labor. His hands gripped her slender waist nearly spanning her waistline. She could feel his hands clenching and unclenching as he tried to restrain himself. The idea that she had that kind of effect on him made her dizzy with power and she pressed her body harder against his. Her arms snaked up around his neck and pulled it down to meet her lips more fully.

Unlike yesterday's kiss that had burned hot and intense from the start, this kiss built slowly, the heat growing from someplace near her belly and electrifying a path up her spine. Their tongues danced, finding an easy rhythm of parry and retreat. Sunara could have stayed like that all evening, but a voice in the back of her mind screamed to release him now or all was lost.

She shifted her weight back, arms disengaging from around Riddick's neck to rest on his heaving chest. Her tongue retreated and it took all the strength of will she had to pull her lips from his. She pushed gently against his chest to help her.

Lastly, her eyes flickered open to look up at his, lips still parted. She saw her flushed face reflected in his metallic eyes. His heart sprinted under her hands and she could see a tick in the muscle of his jaw.

"Thank you for that pleasurable lesson," she said, her tongue thick in her mouth. She took a step back, having to twist slightly to pull free of his hands on her waist. "But, I am tired now and the days ahead will be hectic. I'll need my rest." She sat again on the sofa, hands placed carefully on her lap.

Riddick got control of himself, hiding his thudding heart and suffering libido in a smug smile at her dismissal. "You have no idea."

Her eyes widened a bit at the last comment, but she didn't respond as he left her chambers.

* * *

Riddick stomped along the hallway and cursed himself for being so stupid. It had been a curiosity to see if her mouth really tasted like sun-ripened melon the way it had yesterday. No woman's mouth had ever tasted like that before. But, he hadn't expected such ardor. He also hadn't expected her to affect him so much.

He did feel a little bad for being rough on Sunara yesterday. It had taken him awhile to realize her inexperience. He realized that it was unreasonable to assume she had had the opportunity to date much in her life at the temple. However, she was proving a quick study. Under her demure and usually controlled demeanor was passion he felt had only just begun to surface. _Interesting…_

Not that he had trouble with most women. He always appreciated a beautiful woman, and Sunara was very attractive. He had had his pick of women at times; it had gotten him into trouble other times. He had even broken some hearts over the years, he was sure. Yet, he could never afford to stay in one place for very long when mercs were constantly a threat, so all his relationships had been short lived.

That thought reminded him of Eve. He had left Furya quickly and quietly sending an encrypted message to the palace commander and the assembly of elders. Now with all the wedding preparations going on in his absence, he wondered if she would still be there when he returned. He would just have to cross that bridge when he came to it.

Marriage was decidedly not in his original plans. Let's face it; he had never had a more long term plan that keeping out of one slam or another. But, marriage might not be so bad if Sunara's kisses were any indication. _Dangerous thinking, Riddick… Think of it as a business arrangement,_ he thought to himself.

He instantly felt better and continued to the sparring room. He beat his partners only half a hard as usual.


	13. Chapter 12

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Twelve

_NOTE: Special thanks to MarsLover for the support and Amita4ever for the constructive criticism. I see others adding the story to alerts and it's very encouraging; thank you as well. You all are keeping me writing. It's a long story, and I hope it doesn't get too boring before the finale. I hope you find it all original and exciting. _

_AN2: I notice Fanfic is not saving changes or allowing me to upload changed files. I am sorry for the multiple uploads. I might stop posting until I get things figured out. Tips on how to overcome these issues are appreciated._

Sunara immediately started trembling once the door slid closed behind Riddick. She wrapped her arms around herself and took several deep breaths before she felt in control again.

Riddick was continually a surprise. She had studied his file, but something didn't sit right with her about the details.

All she could tell from the government foster records was that they kept awful records. It looked as though as soon as he could, Riddick had run away from his last foster home and been on his own ever since. Juvy records were harder to tap into since they dealt with minors. But, she had been able to find a murder conviction at 13, no other details.

It was the first line of the foster record that Sunara had reread at least a hundred times. _Baby boy found in a dumpster, umbilical cord wrapped around his neck._ _No known family._ How had a Furyan survivor, a newborn baby, no less, found its way to the Milky Way system?

His later escapades were closely detailed, however. He had been portrayed as a cold-blooded killer and rapist. Having dug to find trial transcripts, she realized it might not be as simple as that. There seemed to be a reoccurring theme to the transcripts. Riddick seemed to get pushed to violence when someone was in trouble, usually a smaller, weaker type someone. The rape conviction seemed fishy as well; a prominent business man's wife gets attacked or caught cheating? Stories conflicted, but Riddick had been an ex-con already and a drifter, a likely fall guy.

But, did it justify killing no matter what the circumstance? What about M6-117? Or after, on that ice-ball planet? If he had been hiding from mercs there were more comfortable locations to do that. Or, had it been for some other reason?

His behavior towards Sunara had been coarse at times, yes, but he hadn't shown any sociopathic traits in her presence. In fact, he had made an effort to make her comfortable all things considered. And, his attraction to her seemed genuine.

She tapped on the console and brought up the video of the fight with the Lord Marshall. She paused it on Kyra, her eyes wide, body tense, straining to watch Riddick. She had been young and pretty, far younger than Sunara. What a pity, really. She wondered if Riddick would ever get over her.

Sunara chided herself over that thought. _It's not like this is a marriage is based on more than political expediency._ She was too old to be a giddy girl with a crush. She was sure Riddick had his own reasons for this marriage. Hers was freedom… freedom from having other people control her life.

She didn't believe in prophecies, and she didn't really think Aereon's vision 30 years ago had been more than a convenient justification by the Lord Marshall for destroying a planet, a people. But, done was done; she had the future to look to, and she was determined to make it hers. Riddick was a tool to help guarantee the security of that future, and nothing more.

Her mouth curved in a smile. _Perhaps, a little more than a tool,_ she mused remembering his response to their last kiss.

The next three days on ship were a blur of activity for Sunara and Aereon. Preparations took up the better part of the daytime hours and much of their nights. She had requested a couple of priestesses to be her assistants. However, no amount of preparing made Sunara happy about her decision to marry Riddick. On one hand, it had been impulsive to agree; on the other, she refused to second guess herself. In all honesty, she had no other choice than to go through with it.

It was the coronation that Sunara worried over more. She wanted to know how it had been for her mother. How had she prepared for it? What were her feelings leading up to it? Did she feel half as nervous as Sunara did? She read and reread details from her mother's crowning, but they never answered her questions. Sunara's grandmother had passed down the crown, effectively retiring from active politics on Furya. Shirrah had been only 28 at the time, already married and had given birth to Sunara's brother. The queen mother had been killed along with the rest of the royal family.

Sunara even watched vid-casts of the event, but it wasn't really the coronation she would focus on. She kept her eyes on her mother, the calm gracefulness, the easy smile and proud stature. Except for her dreams, Sunara could not remember her mother at all. This was the best link she had to her family.

The hectic schedule left Sunara little time to practice sparring with Riddick, who was completing his own preparations for security. It turned out that some of the Furyan allies were sending reinforcements, special forces types that were placed under Riddick's direct command.

Riddick was at his best when he took control and gave commands. He stopped by Sunara's chambers at least once a day to confer on plans and decide what still needed to be done. Their conversations were brief, direct and entirely without the previous playfulness.

Sunara found she missed their sparring bouts. She'd often twirl a blade lazily to keep up her dexterity while she checked and rechecked lists. Each morning she would go through a short sequence of movements Riddick had taught her to remain limber, she told herself.

All too quickly they arrived at Furya. Sunara took up a position on the bridge after they broke atmosphere, the blue-green planet approaching on the plexi-window of the bridge. She stood frozen to the spot, barely breathing, heartbeat racing in her chest. She was _home_.

She sensed more than heard Riddick fall in beside her, watching the approach of the palace in the window.

"I thought I might recognize it," she said quietly.

Riddick understand her feelings. "A lot has changed, Nara."

She turned to look up in his silvery eyes. They no longer intimidated her. In fact, she was fascinated by them in a way. They appeared fathomless. "Still… one should know one's home-world I would think."

"We are coming up on the palace." Riddick nodded at the window. "It won't be long now."

Sunara's heart beat a little faster as she watched the great white building that dominated the city come into view. Swarms of people already lined the courtyard and Sunara began to feel nervous.

"You should go get ready," Riddick remarked. He could feel her tension, the excitement and trepidation.

She smiled meekly up at him and nodded. She returned to her chambers which was a flutter of activity.

"Sunara!" Aereon greeted her. "Where have you been child? Never mind that now." Her voice was excited. "Here, I found something more, hmm, regal for you to wear." She looked at Sunara's black outfit.

She had laid out a stunning gown of deep russet red. The light reflected off of it in ranges of yellow, orange and red. There was a complete set of flame-diamonds – choker, earrings and hair jewelry. A pair of delicate looking red slippers completed the ensemble.

"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Sunara said as she smoothed her hand over the silky fabric.

Aereon's eyes sparkled as she smiled. "Put it on."

Ravienne and Sora, temple priestesses and her assistants, helped her get dressed. Sunara had never felt such luxurious fabric before, and she started to feel a little like the princess everyone kept telling her she was.

By the time they finished with her, the frigate had docked and Riddick was waiting patiently outside her quarters for them to disembark. So, Sunara gathered together her frayed nerves and strode across the room to meet him. Something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, however. She stopped in her tracks and stared at the mirror.

Starring back was a sight she had never seen before. A woman with dark blond hair piled high on her head, secured with bejeweled pins, throat glittering with the same red gems, and wearing a dress that looked to be made from liquid fire rather than fabric. She almost looked like her mother in that coronation vid, and she smiled at the thought. It gave her enough courage to walk out the door.

Riddick turned to face Sunara as he heard the door open. He stopped dead in his tracks and was happy he was wearing his goggles because they hid his appreciative appraisal of her.

She had less luck hiding her stare as she looked him up and down. He had donned shiny black dress armor and looked like the warrior in her nightmares, her protector with silver-gray eyes.

She smiled slyly and asked, "Do I look regal enough?"

Riddick grunted in admiration, returning her smile. "Princess, your people await."

Her smiled broke a little bit at that comment, but he held out his hand to her and bowed in an almost knightly fashion. He squeezed her hand reassuringly, and she glanced up to give him a half-smile. He placed her hand in the crook if his arm and turned them so they stood at the entrance of the great double doors. Aereon, Ravienne, Sora and a squadron of Necro guards fell into line behind them.

The doors were opened with a nod from Riddick. A cheer immediately greeted them and Sunara's heart threatened to thud out of her chest, her feet rooted to the ground. Teams of people cheered, waved flags and chanted. Riddick stepped forward and Sunara had no choice but to follow. Once she got one foot in front of her there was enough inertia to get her and keep her moving down the long catwalk to the palace. She smiled and scanned the faces of the multitudes as she walked seeing their joy.

She clung to Riddick afraid at any moment her legs would turn to the rubber they felt like and she would collapse. Riddick held her arm securely, feeling her nervousness. The crowd took up the cheer "Long live Queen Sunara!" and it nearly shook the walkway.

It must have taken almost ten minutes before the procession arrived at the doors of the palace that were open and awaiting her return. But, before stepping over the threshold, Sunara turned and gave a last wave to her people. The crowd roared excitedly as Sunara and her group disappeared inside the palace.


	14. Chapter 13

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Thirteen

_NOTE: I claim no rights to characters from COR; I only own my own characters._

_AN: This one is a bit shorter than previous chapters. I won't be adding as often; I still have to work, LOL. I am trying not to sissy-fy Riddick over much nor create a Mary Sue in Sunara. Feedback is appreciated. Minor changes made.  
_

"Riddick!" the stocky older man called out, smiling broadly. "How have you been?" he asked, holding out his arm. His left eye sported a star-shaped scar next to it that discolored his normally brown eyes with flecks of blue in that eye. He looked in his mid-fifties with evenly salt-and-pepper hair.

Riddick gripped the man by the forearm and shook it heartily. "Prime Minister Telleck! I'm glad to see you," Riddick said, returning the smile.

The prime minister was one of the few people who had openly supported Riddick from the beginning. He and Riddick shared a similar history of not being born to power. In Telleck's case, he had been conscripted in his country's army during a brutal civil war. It was during the course of the war that he had quickly risen through the ranks, not only because of the high death toll but because of his bravery and strategic planning. He had earned the rank of general within eight years. After the civil war ended, he had gone into politics determined to have a role in his homeland's rebuilding. However, the government's multi-party system threatened to destabilize the country again until Telleck had been elected. It was now his second term as prime minister and he had gained the admiration of his people for helping keep the country stable after so many years of fighting. Despite their differences, the other parties tended to respect Telleck as a fair and even-minded politician.

Riddick and Telleck greeted each other in genuine warmth. Then Telleck turned to the woman wearing a dark blue uniform by his side and swept an arm towards her as an introduction. "Commander Myreta is under your command," he said smiling.

The woman's blond hair was done up in a tight bun, officer's cap in the crook of her arm. The right side of her mouth sported a particularly ugly vertical scar that gave her a permanent grimace. It was hard to tell her age. She saluted Riddick and her movements were crisp but fluid.

Riddick plainly looked her up and down, careful to take in the subtle details of how she carried herself. She remained motionless under his appraisal.

"So, Commander Myreta," Riddick's voice rumbled gruffly, "how do you feel about taking orders from a convicted murder?" He watched her eyes closely from behind his goggles.

The commander smiled, half her mouth curving up, the other curving down. "Your illustrious career precedes you as does your knowledge of hand-to-hand combat. It will be an honor to serve under you, my Lord." She nodded in deference to Riddick.

Telleck slapped Riddick on the back, laughing. "You have 600 of my best soldiers at your disposal, Riddick. These are professional soldiers – they live to die in the glory of battle."

Riddick led the two of them to his office, Thorn padding along beside them. With Riddick's abrupt departure and return, Thorn had been loathe to leave his side, often making a nuisance of himself by getting underfoot.

The trio spent five hours analyzing the palace schematics and city maps, discussing all possible security issues and means to reduce them. Commander Myreta would be personally in charge of the queen's bodyguard and delegated the remaining duties to her captains. With a last salute to both the prime minister and Riddick, she stalked from the room to relay orders.

Telleck, however, settled deeper into his chair and watched Riddick flip through documents. He let the silence stretch for a few minutes before finally asking the question, "So, what's the _real_ reason for the security concern?"

Riddick stopped shuffling reports and stared at the prime minister with his reflective eyes. He smiled slyly. "Now, whatever gave you that idea?"

Telleck stood and strode across the room, boots clicking across the hard floor. "I didn't become a general by ignoring my instincts and something tells me there is more than the coronation and wedding that has you on edge."

Riddick was sure he could confide in Telleck, so he told the man the full story of Vaako's obvious visit to the UnderVerse and the increased possibility of an attack.

"And she knows nothing of the danger?" Telleck, who had remained silent, finally asked.

Riddick didn't answer his question immediately. Sunara had been told about Vaako and the Believers but not about the new-found powers. He and Aereon had decided it was better to not overwhelm Sunara with the information.

Riddick's brow furrowed as he finally responded, "She has been through a lot recently."

"She has a right to know completely what she is getting herself into," Telleck remarked quietly.

"Perhaps, but not today." Riddick rose from the table. "The ceremonies are in two days. I think she has enough to worry about for now."

"Oh! I almost forgot," Telleck said, smiling broadly again and digging into a breast pocket. He retracted two long brown cylinders and handed one to Riddick. "Nisha'ni gold cigars. In honor of your nuptials."

"I thought there was an embargo against the Nisha'ni." Riddick grinned as he took the offered cigar, smelling it appreciatively.

"I have my resources," Telleck confirmed. "Nothing but the best for the bride-groom." He offered to cut and light Riddick's cigar before doing the same to his own.

Riddick grunted as he puffed but got the distinct impression that Telleck was enjoying goading him.

* * *

Riddick did not look forward to the formal reception that evening when hundreds of dignitaries would be introduced to the soon-to-be queen. He had never been particularly good with people unless they were convicts. He certainly wasn't good with authority figures. But, now he was expected to spend an entire evening with people from military officials to ambassadors to royalty… and play nice with them all.

He walked down the hallway, Thorn at his hip, lost in thought and grumbling to himself when he almost knocked Eve Logan over as she rounded a corner. Instinctively, he reached out and steadied her, both his hands on her upper arms. He actually hadn't thought about her since their return to Furya.

She carried a large duffle bag over one shoulder, brown hair held back in a tight pony tail. After shifting her weight to avoid falling over, she stepped out of Riddick's grasp.

"Leaving?" he asked, ever the man of few words.

"Yeah," Eve said shrugging her shoulders. "I got some money saved, may even buy my own ship instead of piloting for jackasses." She grinned.

Riddick chuckled, too. In the months Eve had spent on Furya, she had been piloting transport ships, conveying food and supplies around the planet. She was a damn good pilot actually.

"If you ever need anything…" Riddick left the remainder of his sentence unfinished.

"Thanks," Eve said and smiled before she started walking again.

"Eve," Riddick called out before she disappeared around the next bend.

She stopped and half-turned, her profile to Riddick.

"If I find you with mercs, we wouldn't be able to remain friends."

Eve nodded her head once, turned on her heel and continued down the corridor.


	15. Chapter 14

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Fourteen

_NOTE: I claim no rights to characters from COR; I only own my own characters._

Sunara was restless.

She had been trapped in her chambers, spending the better part of the evening after her arrival as well as the next day getting fitted for clothing. She had been fitted for her coronation-slash-wedding gown yesterday and now an entire trousseau was being created. Everything from ceremonial gowns to everyday wear was being designed for her by Basia, one of the best-known emerging designers. Several other powerful women had contracted with her for work after the Furyan festivities, so she was guaranteed several years worth of work from this event. Fortunately, her tastes were less on the ostentatious side and more on the simple-but-elegant side of fashion or Sunara might have sent her packing the first day. She was still used to the simplicity of her priestess robes. As it was, Sunara was dressed, poked, pinned and stripped repeatedly while Aereon read inventories for both ceremonies and they made minor adjustments.

The temple priestesses had been infinitely helpful. They worked as seamstresses, decorators, cooks, gofers and any number of other needed jobs. Accommodations had been made in the palace anywhere they could find space, which wasn't very much with all the celebrity guests being housed there as well. Many of the priestess still remained on the ships, using them as dormitories.

Many of the families of the survivors had decided to attend as well. Sunara had been correct; they showed their appreciation through financial help as well as gifts of food, gems, cloth, and other tokens of thanks. It would all go a long way toward providing for all the guests.

Sunara was finally on the last fitting for her outfit for the reception dinner this evening when she would be formally introduced to the public figures as princess before claiming the crown. Basia was at the moment fussing over the drape and folds of the gown, nipping and tucking to her satisfaction. It was a high-waisted sapphire blue dress with broad sheer sleeves that turned into gauzy folds down her back.

When Basia was satisfied, Sunara had a few minutes to herself before launching into the endless introductions and pleasantries with boorish dignitaries. Politely asking the legion of seamstresses as well as Aereon, Ravienne and Sora to leave, Sunara then collapsed on a settee and closed her eyes. She was sure Basia would be horrified at her wrinkling of the gown, but for now she needed some peace. She took several deep breaths, calling upon her priestess training to calm her.

By the time she felt totally peaceful, a soft knock sounded at her door.

"Come in!" she called, eyes still closed to try to maintain her serenity.

She never heard his approach so that when she did finally open her eyes curiously, she was startled to see Riddick smiling down at her. He wore a black jacket with a high collar. The closure of the jacket angled cross his broad chest and was edged in an iridescent midnight blue. He wore matching black slacks and military style boots. He had opted to wear his standard curved daggers in sheaths strapped to his thighs. Altogether it looked very much like a military uniform.

His usual goggles were replaced by blue-tinted glasses that provided less protection, but Aereon had convinced him to wear them. It seems people felt they couldn't trust him with the goggles on, yet his animal-like eyes made them uncomfortable. The glasses had been their compromise. They almost made him look civilized… almost.

"I didn't expect you, yet." She stood up and straightened her dress, feeling uncomfortably like prey in her lounging position.

"Sorry to disturb your sleep." As he said it, he smiled in a way that hinted he hadn't really been sorry to find her in repose. "I have something for you. A wedding gift."

Sunara was taken aback as he produced a rectangular wooden box. "But, that's two days away."

"I figured the next two days would be too hectic, and I wanted you to have it now," his voice rumbled.

"That's very kind of you," she said as she took the box gingerly.

Carefully, she opened the hinged lid and peeled back gauzy tissue. Inside was a rectangle of plexi-glass about three inches by five that seemed to have something inside it. Sunara held it up to the light. In center was a hologram portrait of the royal family, the last photo taken before the Fall. The image seemed so genuine that Sunara thought she saw her mother's mouth curve in a smile and her brother lean closer to their father. Turning the piece over revealed the same frontal image.

"Riddick…" Tears welled and her heart felt heavy in her chest. "I can't thank you enough."

"I thought you might like something of your family," he replied brusquely.

She looked at him with an intense curiosity, piercing his eyes behind the glasses. For once, her intense scrutiny made him uncomfortable. He had expected tears, but not a stare that was meant to strip away his exterior.

Finally, she seemed to relax. "Thank you again, sincerely." She leaned up to him, brushing her lips gently against his cheek.

She set the box reverently on a side table. "I have something for you, too, since we are exchanging gifts."

She disappeared into a side room for a moment and returned with a box made from a dark gray metal. It was almost two feet long, a foot wide but only a few inches deep. She set it carefully on the settee she had lounged on earlier.

Riddick unlatched the two clasps on the front and flipped open the box. Set into cut-foam crevices were matching daggers about twelve inches long. They were unusual, wider and angled at the tips and thinning towards the hilt. The metal guards were inlaid with various gems in geometric patterns. He carefully picked up the blades by the pommel and weighed them in his hands. They were well balanced blades and the grips felt like silk in his palms fitting perfectly. And, despite the elaborate design, they were deadly sharp.

"Custom-made for you by the Valion metal smiths, the finest in the galaxy," she said meekly. "They are meant to be ceremonial rather than utilitarian."

Riddick grunted in appreciation and reached down to slide his talon-like blades free of their sheaths, replacing them with the new daggers. The others went in the metal crate. The new daggers glinted in the low light of the room. Sunara thought they made him look even more imposing in his suit.

"Thank you, Nara," he said simply. He leaned down, lips aiming for her cheek. But, at the last second, his lips diverted to hers. He held them there for only half a breath before pulling away.

It was a most demure kiss, but Sunara's heart skipped a beat anyway. "We should get ready to go," she said without looking up at him and slipped on her heeled shoes.

* * *

Sunara and Riddick stood among a small grotto in the palace garden. Lights were strung along the walkways and musicians played quietly. People of every description and wearing every manner of finery strolled in the garden carrying glasses of various intoxicating substances, selecting morsels from trays piled with delicacies and chattering at small round tables. Commander Myreta and four of her soldiers stood nearby and carefully scanned the weaving crowd. Ravienne and Sora stood behind Sunara and made sure she ate and drank at intervals and making a pile of gifts. Finally, Aereon headed up the reception line carefully regulating the flow of heads of state and other celebrities.

Riddick had to admire Sunara; she was decidedly in her element. She had obviously read the dossiers on all these people and memorized pieces to use. She had a kind word or question for each person that she was introduced to. She commented on the recent engagement of one governor's son, and she asked after a president's wife who couldn't attend for health reasons. She engendered people to her instantly and always introduced them to Riddick, many of whom had had run-ins with him already. Their reactions were usually consistent – abject terror or swift dismissal. Riddick's replies were typically low grunts or mono-syllabic responses. Sunara felt for him; he was _not _a politician, but he had taken on this challenge of rebuilding and reuniting his people. _Curious…_

Suddenly from near the front of the line burst a little girl's cry, "Riddick!"

Ziza couldn't contain her joy as she bounded toward Riddick and Sunara carrying basket. He felt Commander Myreta ready to jump forward until he waved her back. More slowly Toal and Lajjun stepped forward too, dressed in muted but festive clothing.

"You must be a weed. I could've sworn you were only yay-high last I saw you," Riddick said with humor in his voice. He knelt down to give her the hug she was waiting for.

"Our apologies, your majesty," Lajjun said and bowed.

"No need. I have heard much about the precocious Ziza. And, you must be Toal and Lajjun. A pleasure to finally meet you all," said Sunara and nodded at them graciously.

"Your majesty," Ziza said breathlessly, wide eyed, "you live in the most beautiful house ever."

Everyone laughed at her naïve if not honest remark.

"Highness, Ziza has a welcome gift for you," Toal said and nodded at Ziza who lifted the cover of her basket.

Inside was a tiny creature curled into a tight ball and looked like it was covered in speckled black and red scales. The only other specimen Sunara had seen before was Riddick's pet, Thorn. The miniature-Thorn picked up its little head looking around and wondering why its slumber had been disturbed. The eyes were silvery in the lantern light.

"Oh my… I've never had a pet before," Sunara said quietly. She reached down to pick up the ball from the scruff and it made a half-meow, half-screech in protest.

"My Jack had puppies," Ziza said happily. "So, I told mamma and papa I wanted you to have one."

Toal's smile wavered and Lajjun's face looked pained. Meanwhile, Riddick chuckled.

"So, Jack turned out to be girl after all? Figures…"

"Thank you, Ziza. It is the best gift I've ever received." As she spoke, Sunara tried to keep the tears from her eyes. "I promise to take good care of him."

Toal looked over his shoulder at the press of people and nudged Lajjun and Ziza along saying their well wishes, but not before Ziza shouted out, "He likes to eat meat… oh! and fingers!"

Sunara chuckled and placed the 'pup' back in its basket where it curled up again and went back to sleep. She handed it over to Sora and turned back to her next guest.


	16. Chapter 15

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Fifteen

_AN: Apologies; Chapter 14 and 15 should really go together, but it's too long as one chapter. I hope they aren't 'fluff' chapters. I was trying to show some complexity to the characters relationship and their pasts. I hope that gets conveyed.  
_

The beginning of the evening had gone by quickly, now only a few people approached Sunara, singularly or in couples.

Riddick had just finish scaring away a meek little man when he felt more than saw Sunara bristle. It was reflected in the sudden straightening of her back and stiff set of her shoulders. Other people would have missed it, but Riddick wasn't other people.

He craned his head around to see the next couple making their way up the line, a rotund middle-aged man speaking to Aereon in an obnoxiously loud voice. He had in tow his wife, a much younger mousy girl who looked to be about eight months pregnant. He was loquacious and obviously well intoxicated. Aereon introduced him as Baron Dubay and Baroness Kariana.

"Baron, baroness… it is an honor," Sunara inclined her head to his sloppy bow. Unlike with the others, Sunara's voice was icy and she gave no further comments.

"Your highness," the baron rumbled, missing the slight, "you have a lovely little soirée here." His voice slurred and his wife looked embarrassed, trying to hide behind his girth.

Riddick saw her jaw line set, a tick developing. He wasn't sure what her history was with the baron but he had never seen Sunara angry before. He stepped forward to intercede apparently having been overlooked.

"It seems that you are enjoying yourself, Baron," Riddick drawled. "Maybe you should call it an evening while your ahead," he suggested with an accompanying look that said it was more than a suggestion.

"No, no, I could go all night," the baron said, oblivious to the hint.

"Perhaps your wife would like to retire." Sunara smiled at the baroness. "She looks about to drop from exhaustion, poor child."

The woman smiled weakly but remained behind her husband.

The baron was unfazed and waved a dismissive hand. "She may retire. Excuse me, highness… but I see someone I need to speak to." And, without waiting for a dismissal from Sunara, he moved on, his wife lumbering alongside him.

Sunara glared at his back, fists clenched in the folds of her dress.

"I should teach him a lesson," Riddick growled.

"Don't waste your energy on that bloated toad," she said quietly but vehemently. "He is undeserving of your attention," she remarked significantly.

The baron had not seemed to recognize Sunara, but she definitely recognized him. Riddick's eyes tracked the baron as he made his noisy way through the remaining partiers. By the time his attention returned to Sunara she was visibly more relaxed and smiling at another woman who had made her way up the line.

"Lady Gemma, it is a pleasure," Sunara was saying. "My sympathies on the passing of your late husband."

Lady Gemma appeared to barely hear Sunara and gave the briefest bow as she turned her focus to Riddick. She was an imposing if not a tall woman, perhaps in her forties. Her rich dark hair was piled high on her head and set off her alabaster skin and deep jade eyes. She wore a stunning green dress with plunging neckline. It hugged her curves, showing she had little of the excesses that older women often carried. Her upper arms, neck and ears dripped with enough gemstones to ransom a small country. Following her like a shadow was a taller man, broad shouldered and wearing a formal black suit and white dress shirt that had to have been custom-made for his solid frame. He stood silently, eyes glowering at Riddick.

"Ah, the convict," she drawled. Her voice was deep and throaty, and she spoke like a woman who was used to being paid attention to. Her eyes openly scrutinized Riddick, lips curving in appreciation. "I have heard about you."

"Have you? And what had you heard?" Riddick's own lazy drawl matched hers. He had met her kind before, overly self-assured, and enough power and money to wreck havoc at a whim.

The older woman stepped boldly toward Riddick, smiling conspiratorially. "I have heard you battle monsters in the dark, move with the instincts of a cat and know how to use a blade."

Sunara's blood began to boil at the double entendre. The woman oozed sexuality, and it was not lost on Riddick. She glared at Riddick over Lady Gemma's shoulder, but he wasn't focused on her.

"Don't believe everything you hear, my lady," he said resolutely meeting her stare.

Her smile deepened and her eyes glittered darkly. "Maybe I'll just have to find out for myself one day."

"Not gonna happen," he said, voiced laced with menace.

She laughed as if he had made an amusing joke and then nodded absently at Sunara. Smiling once more at Riddick, she moved on and her shadow stared fiercely at Riddick before following his payday.

Riddick's eyes continued to take in the lady's form, which looked just as attractive from the back, before turning back to Sunara. He had once heard the expression _if looks could kill… _Now he understood the meaning.

"Do you know her?" she asked, trying very hard to control the timbre of her voice.

Laughter rumbled in his throat. "No, but I know her type… Think she's hot shit because she has money and a title."

"She seemed to know you quite well." She hated the sound of jealousy in her voice, but she couldn't help herself.

Riddick's enjoyment at her show of jealously was obvious, and it galled her even more. The next thing she knew he was standing in front of her, but his steely gray eyes had lost their gleeful shine.

"Believe me, Nara, when I say I wouldn't touch that kind of woman with a 10-foot pole. I met a woman like her before who thought she could use me for her amusement. Her body ends at the neck now," he spoke quietly.

Sunara had to look away first. There was something in Riddick's face, a rage that she hadn't seen before.

"My apologies. I'm… tired." Sunara shook her head and turned back to the guests. No one new had come along and the masses had thinned.

He backed up slowly, relaxing. He was feeling edgy. All these people, all the lights. He still wasn't used to it all. A part of him still hated it.

"Why don't you retire for the evening, Riddick," Sunara suggested, feeling she would like to do the same, but her duty was to mingle with her guests.

"Don't try to handle me, Nara," Riddick whispered behind her, his voice threatening.

Maybe it was the recent agitations on top of the last few long days, but Sunara whipped around and glared at Riddick. "I wouldn't try to handle you if you _tried_ to do more than give animalistic grunts to people."

"So I am the brawn, and you are the brains, is that it?" Riddick continued to growl.

"Riddick, anyone who thinks you a fool is twice the fool." Riddick seem taken aback by the compliment. "I was trying to be sympathetic, not condescending. I know this is not your arena," she replied defensively.

"You have no idea," he whispered, but less threateningly. Lady Gemma had brought up dark primal feelings.

"Do as you will, my lord. It was merely a suggestion." And with that, she turned her back on him and stepped into the crowd, back to her polite self.

Riddick watched her go into the crowd. Some part of him wanted to chase her down and throttle her. The other half wanted to… But there would be time enough for that later. So, he turned and stomped back into the palace with no one the wiser.


	17. Chapter 16

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Sixteen

_AN: OK, MarsLover, the wedding is below. It may not be all you expected, but let me know what you think. All feedback welcome!_

Riddick had been right; the next day was Sunara's busiest ever. Aereon and Sunara had worked to reconstruct the traditional coronation ceremony from her mother's time with differences, of course. They spent the day reviewing and rehearsing.

At the same time, dozens of people trooped in and out with questions for Sunara. The seating had to be reconsidered because of political conflicts, and the kitchen staff was overwhelmed and needed more this or that. The priestesses often did double and sometimes triple duty. They proved indispensable as runners, carrying messages back and forth. Meanwhile, Riddick spent the entire day consulting with Commander Myreta and his own officers about security challenges they expected over the next several days.

Amid the mayhem of last minute planning, Sunara stole reassuring glances at the family portrait Riddick had given her. She had placed it on her desk and made sure she could see it from many vantage points.

At midday, one of the priestesses from the kitchens burst into the room.

"Highness! There is trouble with one of the guests," the girl gasped. "Come quickly!"

Distressed that someone might have gotten hurt, Sunara jumped up and dashed from the room. Aereon and several ladies followed the girl towards the storeroom areas in the lower regions of the palace. The girl wouldn't say anything but "Come quickly."

As they approached a storeroom, Sunara could hear a woman screaming and her blood went cold. She pushed aside the frightened priestess and burst through the door determined to help the poor screaming woman inside. She stopped dead in her tracks.

Another priestess, barely of age, was screaming, crying and kicking at her assailant who turned as the door burst open. His pants undone and trying to hold the young girl down was Baron Dubay. The priestess looked both relieved and horrified to see Sunara come to her rescue.

Sunara's body immediately went stiff; the rage was so instantaneous it surprised her. The baron at least had some grace to look embarrassed.

"At least have some decency to cover your dignity, sir," she said through gritted teeth.

The baron hastily button up his pants and half-smiled an apology at the ladies present.

"Your highness," the baron said in a bored tone, "I'm sorry to have disturbed you."

That was _not_ the apology Sunara had hoped for. She nodded to Sora who rushed into the room and helped the terrified girl exit.

"Baron, you have insulted me and my household," Sunara said, smiling a deadly smile.

"But, your highness… she was just a kitchen maid," he began stuttering.

That was the last straw. "Baron," she growled, "that _girl_ you were trying to rape is a priestess of the Temple of Kha Maruk and my sister." The baron's eyes went wide at her last statement finally realizing his faux pas.

"I think it's time for you to leave, Baron," a deep baritone voice said from behind Sunara.

Sunara's anger was like a candle to Riddick's volcano. She heard his voice reverberate with menace. She was completely sure he would like the baron to refuse and give Riddick a reason to kill him.

"You cannot do that!" the baron protested, but his eyes flickered nervously back and forth between the both of them. "If you kick me out, you'll lose any chance at your precious treaty."

The baron's territory was prime land for food crops, most of which was exported to other planets. The food would be welcome on Furya but not at the price he wanted.

"Stuff your treaty in your trunk as you pack up and get off my planet," Riddick growled.

Seeing himself cornered, the baron's face grew angry, turning several shades of red. "You'll be sorry for this insult," he swore and trudged past the gathered crowd.

Once he passed, excited chatter erupted from the crowd. "Ladies, please… return to your business," Sunara said, urging them back up the corridor. Riddick remained behind.

When everyone was gone, Sunara turned to face Riddick. Gratitude filled her eyes. "Thank you."

His mouth cocked in a wry smile. "For scum like that, anytime."

"He is right about one thing." She paused while Riddick raised an eyebrow. "We could have used a treaty with him. Besides the food, he has an extensive trading empire."

Riddick leaned lazily against the wall. "We don't need a slug like that, Nara. There are others with trade routes we could negotiate for."

He was right, of course. Sunara nodded. "I will check on Della, but I believe we arrived in time. She will be traumatized, though."

"I will personally _escort_ the baron and his wife off planet," Riddick said and moved off down the hallway.

* * *

Suddenly it was time.

Basia and others helped Sunara into her gown. Underneath was a silky sheath dress in cream with a modest bodice. Over it she wore a tunic in luminous gold with draping sleeves and a short train. The borders were embroidered in gold filigree creating a floral pattern with pearls for blossoms. Her braided hair was piled in coils on top of her head.

One of the governor's wives had stopped by earlier and given her a beautiful set of heirloom half-moon pearls, a triple-strand necklace and chandelier earrings. Sunara had tried to return the precious gift.

"No, please, highness," she had said. "I have no children of my own, and I would be honored if you wore them."

The coronation and wedding would take place on the landing pad outside the palace. Large pavilions and rows of seating had been set up in the courtyard. Only people with an invitation were allowed within the palace walls, but a holo-cast was being projected in the main plaza of town. City-dwellers had camped out in the plaza overnight to guarantee the best seats and temporary sanitation houses had had to be erected. Food vendors and hawkers of all kinds had set up in the area. Necro troops moved among the crowds to keep order and ships cruised the skies keeping them free of curious onlookers or Believer ships.

Encircling the ceremony area were Riddick, Prime Minister Telleck, several of his elite guard and the Furyan council of elders. It had been decided that Aereon would conduct both ceremonies since she was a relatively neutral party. She would gain nothing politically from her role whereas if any member of the council were selected, others would feel slighted. Moreover, the person selected could use it for political leverage once elections began.

Sunara breathed deeply to steady her nerves before exiting the palace and walking slowly toward the assemblage. Ravienne and Sora carried the heavily embroidered train. She could hear the cheers from people outside the walls as they watched her on the holo-cast. She tried to not visibly shake, but her legs felt rubbery the entire way.

Finally, she made it in front of Aereon who held a crown in her hands, a replica of the original Furyan crown. After the Fall, the original had disappeared, plundered and parts out most likely. Sunara knelt as Aereon raised the crown over her head and spoke, her clear voice ringing out over the throng.

"Do you, Sunara, daughter of Shirrah, last queen of Furya, accept the responsibilities of this crown willingly?" Aereon asked.

"I do," Sunara solemnly replied.

"Do you pledge to be a fair and just ruler to your people?"

"I do," Sunara said.

"Do you so swear your allegiance to your people, to your planet and promise to defend them against their enemies?" Aereon finally asked.

"I do so solemnly swear it," Sunara's reply carried her conviction.

"Then I name you, Sunara, daughter of Shirrah, Queen and Reagent of Furya." With her words, Aereon placed the crown on Sunara's head and the crowd inside and outside the palace erupted into cheers of "Long live Queen Sunara!"

Sunara stood up smiling and feeling some of her nervousness dissipate. But, when Aereon nodded at Riddick and he stepped forward, Sunara's stomach began flopping again. He wore his blue-tinted glasses and another suit, this time all black with details in gold.

Ravienne stepped forward with a long silken cord encrusted with pearls. Sunara gripped Riddick's right hand in her left while Ravienne loosely tied the cord around their joined hands. Aereon retrieved a broad circlet of gold with jewels and Furyan runes, and held it before him. Unlike Sunara, Riddick did not kneel. The crowd's cheers died down.

"Will you, Riddick, Commander of the Necromonger fleet, support Queen Sunara in her duties to her people?" Aereon asked.

"I will," he said baritone voice deep but loud.

"Do you accept Queen Sunara as your wife and all the responsibilities therein willingly?" Aereon asked.

Sunara's breath caught for half-second before he replied, "I do."

"Do you so swear your allegiance to your people, to your planet and promise to defend them against their enemies?" Aereon asked.

"I do so swear it," he replied.

"Then I name you, Riddick, Commander of the Necromonger fleet, King and Co-Reagent of Furya." Aereon smiled broadly as she placed the crown on his head.

Again, cheers erupted and seemed even louder than before. "Long live Queen Sunara! Long live King Riddick!" floated over the jubilant crowds inside and outside as Aereon slipped the knotted cord from their hands.

"Let the union witnessed here today but unmade only through death or dishonor," Aereon called out.


	18. Chapter 17

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Seventeen

_AN: There is a sex scene after the line break. This story is rated 17+._

After the ceremonies, the guests filed into palace where trestle tables were piled high with four types of roast beast, all style and manner of vegetables, breads and drinks. Sunara and Riddick had greeted everyone in the reception line already. Now she sat alone at the head table picking at her food while Riddick spent more time with the military types like Telleck. It was well into the night and most people had full bellies and inebriated heads.

She was lost in thought watching the men and women weave in intricate dances as musicians played haunting melodies. What would it have been like to have her family with her on what ought to have been a joyous day? What sage advice would the Reverend Mother have had to give her at the moment she needed it?

Riddick slid quietly into his seat beside her, startling her out of her reverie. "You are already frowning, and we haven't even had our wedding night." he said amused.

Sunara laughed. "People will think you have displeased me already," she said teasingly.

"I haven't had any complaints before," he joked back.

Something flickered in her eyes. "The night is young," she countered.

"Are you going to tell me why you hate the baron so much?" Riddick asked suddenly, refilling her wine.

His questioned startled her and a pained expression crossed her face. "When I was a child at the temple, my best friend was Liana. She was the kindest, most generous person you could ever meet, but frail," she began. "Liana was noble-born, so when she got older, her parents arranged for her to marry."

"Baron Dubay." Riddick said simply. And, the woman with the baron had obviously not been Liana.

Sunara nodded. "Liana wrote me almost every week at first. She seemed genuinely happy." That pained look crossed her features again. "When she got pregnant, I was so happy for her. All she ever wanted was a family." She sipped her wine. "Then the second baby came… then the third," she sighed. "She wrote less. I knew it was because she was unhappy. Rumors were that the baron had plenty of mistresses."

Riddick could see that it was hard for Sunara to talk about, so he remained silent.

When she finally did speak, her voice was stained and her eyes watery. "Five pregnancies in almost as many years. She was always prone to illness." Her voice shook a little. "Poor Liana… She died giving birth to the last child. Within three months he married the wet nurse to legitimize his children with her."

"He shouldn't have been invited in the first place," Riddick suggested.

"No, his title gives him a certain privilege and that kind of open insult would have caused more problems," Sunara said, brows knitting. "His behavior was enough to get him removed without being contested by anyone else."

Riddick grunted and downed his wine. "I doubt it's the last we'll hear from him."

* * *

Even though many of the guests remained in the dinning hall, Sunara politely excused herself, returning to her chambers. She wanted a bath before Riddick arrived.

She carefully removed her coronation gown with the help of her assistants. Sunara donned her robe and made her way to the bath chamber in her apartments. Someone had lit candles around the parameter of the tub and scented the water. She stepped into the large sunken tub and the hot water issued curls of steam. The tube was large enough to fit at least 20 people comfortably and had recesses along the walls to sit or recline on. She submerged herself to her shoulders and sighed in relaxation idly swimming along the tub's length.

She was familiar with what was expected on her wedding night. All temple priestesses were educated in sex, and not just its pragmatic purpose. Priestesses were expected to seek pleasure not only for their husbands or lovers but for themselves. But, Sunara had always thought she would serve her temple eventually, even taking over as Reverend Mother one day.

How odd to think it wasn't so long ago she was happy at the temple and would have spent her entire life there. Now, here she was light years away from everything she thought she had wanted.

A splash sounded behind her, and she turned in time to see Riddick waist deep in the water, his broad chest bare and metallic eyes glittering in the candle light. Sunara gasped and made sure she was submerged to her chest.

"Riddick, I didn't expect you so soon," she said, blushing.

He chuckled and approached her. "Can't a husband assist his wife?"

She smiled weakly. "Yes, of course."

He trudged through the water toward her, and she definitely felt like prey now. When he was close to her, he reached out a hand. She fought the urge to flinch and stood her ground. His hand reached up to her hair, unpinning it to fall in large golden waves down her back. Sunara gasped at his simple gesture, not sure what to make of it. His hands gripped her shoulders gently and turned her around, so her back was to him. She felt her heart beat a little faster.

He began wetting her hair with a pitcher from the side of the bath. He massaged in her hair treatments and carefully rinsed each time. He was silent, and she submitted to his attention willingly. His hands on her scalp were firm but gentle, and he never made a move to touch her except for washing her hair. He seemed fascinated by her hair and ran his fingers over the tendrils. By the time he was finished, Sunara was feeling a relaxed warmth that had little to do with the bath water. Sunara had to admit to herself; it was the most erotic experience in her life so far.

She turned to face him when he had finished, lips parted, eyes glassy in the low light. Gravity took over again and his lips were pulled towards hers. His large strong hands gripped her bare waist and pulled her closer. It was a slow burning kiss, tongues tentative at first and gaining momentum. Riddick's hands stroked her sides while her arms slid up from his chest around his neck.

The heat built in Sunara's belly and spiraled up her spine making her dizzy. She pressed her length along Riddick's and sighed into his mouth. His hands wound behind her back and clutched her to his hard body in response, crushing her breasts to his chest. He sat her on one of the underwater benches, a knee coaxing her legs to part.

He broke off the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers, panting. "I don't want to hurt you," he said, his voice thick and husky.

Sunara panted gently and smiled. "It can't be helped. I trust you."

He grunted and resumed their kiss, feeling his thickness stroke her inner thigh. She opened herself to him and felt her belly ache like never before. He accepted her invitation and entered her warmth, teasing her in short strokes. Her legs wrapped around his waist in her eagerness, and she whimpered. When he was sure she was ready, his hips thrust up and he felt the breaking of her barrier. She tensed and gasped in pain, but his savage kiss muffled it. He didn't move again but just kept kissing her, tongue tasting every inch of her mouth. When she relaxed in his arms, he began moving inside her aching warmth.

Sunara moaned and tightened her arms around his neck, the heat too delicious to deny now. They rocked in prefect unison faster and faster. Sunara's movements grew more frantic almost undoing Riddck. Suddenly Sunara's body exploded through a dozen sensations that overwhelmed her senses. She threw her head back, crying out, and then sank her teeth into his shoulder as she continued to whimper. He continued to thrust through her orgasm, but it wasn't long before he too tensed and his body shuddered, teeth grinding.

They both panted, bodies still entangled. It was several moments before their breathing returned to normal.

* * *


	19. Chapter 18

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Eighteen

Muted sunlight slanted through the drapes of Sunara's bedroom. She woke slowly, enjoying the delicious warmth of her covers. She figured it was late morning, and she probably should get up. But not quite yet.

The last memory she had of the evening was she and Riddick in her bed. After the initial frenzied pairing in the bath, they had coupled twice more before Sunara fell into a dreamless sleep. The second time he had nibbled every inch of her body, seemingly trying to devour her whole. Finally, he took her again when she began whimpering "Riddick… please." The third time she had given him the same treatment, tasting his skin and lingering over the multitude of scars while he ground his teeth. He finally grabbed her hips and guided her to straddle him until they were both sated. Riddick, however, must have slept in his own chambers because there was no sign of him now.

Sunara frowned slightly as her stomach grumbled. There was no more use putting it off. She kicked off the covers and looked for her robe before opening her door and calling for her breakfast. Shortly, Ravienne and Sora entered with trays of cold cuts, fruit and teapot. The puppy Ziza had given her also bounded through the door and greeted Sunara. She had already sacrificed a pair of slippers to the pup, so she played with him while the food was set out.

"What time is it?" she asked finally.

"Near noon, your highness," Ravienne said. She and Sora exchanged a sly look.

Sunara gasped. Half the day gone? "What of our guests? Has anyone asked for me?" she asked anxiously.

"No, my lady," Sora replied. "Aereon has seen to it that those who wished it are taking a tour of the planet. Others are still recovering from the festivities in their rooms."

She would have to remember to thank Aereon.

"And," Sunara tried to sound casual, "where is King Riddick?"

"I believe he is with his commanders, your highness," Ravienne said.

"Please, Ravienne, Sora, don't use such titles with me in private," Sunara said, a weariness in her voice. She rubbed her forehead and sipped her tea. "We have been through too much together for such formalities."

"Yes, high – I mean, Sunara," replied Ravienne.

Sunara gave her a weak smile and ate her breakfast as Sora described the events planned for the next few days.

Over the next week, various entertainments kept the remaining guests busy while Riddick, Sunara and Aereon negotiated trade agreements and secured shipping lanes through other territories. Riddick left the bulk of negotiations to Sunara and Aereon. He loathed the formalities, the false smiles and condescending tones of the dignitaries. To her credit, Sunara tried to deflect as much of the talks from him as she could.

However, they had little to offer in return except Necromonger technology. Riddick had resisted the idea at first.

"We have little else of value. We have no major exports, yet," Sunara had reasoned when they were in private.

She was right. There were wines in the southern region that were already being prized as the best in galaxy, but it would take ten years at least to have a sizable enough harvest for exports. Other handicrafts had sprung up but nothing that would give them an advantage in trade.

"There is no guarantee that the Necro technology will work outside the ships we already have," Riddick countered.

"But, that's not our problem. If they want the dark technology of the UnderVerse, then they have to figure it out themselves," she said conspiratorially.

"I still don't like it," he grumbled but had no alternative.

They had agreed on one thing; Final Protocol technology would never be traded.

Despite some set backs or deferrals, most of the agreements were signed by the week's end. The rebuilding of Furya was about to get into full swing.

* * *

In the five months since the coronation, Furya Majoris turned into a bustling metropolis, and with it had come the typical overcrowding and crime. Riddick's soldiers had to train a police force, not a job Riddick relished given his previous career. Only three cities had enough population to receive a police force – the capitol, Banford in the southern hemisphere and Graventon on the coast of the Open Sea. There were many other towns spread across the planet but most were shanty towns where lawlessness and vigilantism prevailed. Local militias were being set up temporarily, and Necro troops were put in place to support them.

Sunara spent her time reviewing the Furyan constitution which she planned to reinstate. It called for a constitutional monarchy with the regent maintaining much of the power. The hardest part was conducting a census of the population for voting. Sunara estimated about forty percent of the population were native Furyan. With all the non-Furyan immigrants, elections would prove to be interesting. She was hoping to have elections for parliamentary seats within the year, not an easy task.

Then there were taxes to decide on as well as a method for collecting them which in turn required a unified currency. At the moment, nearly a dozen different forms of money were wandering the planet. The Furyan _royal_ was being designed with the royal family portrait, but that wouldn't be issued for months yet. Meanwhile, the barter system was in place in most areas.

All over the planet there was a burst of building and renovations. Companies from all over the galaxy had bid on reconstruction projects and over the past few months roads, sanitation and communications greatly improved. There was a shortage of labor, so everyone who could work did work. Hospitals and clinics were springing up all over with most doctors taking little to no pay or bartering for their services. Sunara had made schools one of her priorities and assigned the priestesses to be in charge of them all over the planet. Schools were set up in dilapidated buildings, make-shift tents or sometimes a person's home. Materials were rudimentary, but most children were excited to have some kind of normalcy return to their lives.

Sunara also took special interest in orphanages and visited the orphanage in Furya Majoris two or three times a week to read to the children and spend time in the simple joy of being around their innocence. It was one of the few arguments Riddick and Sunara ever had.

"I will take security measures, but you cannot keep me chained up in the palace," she had protested.

"Watch me," he had replied. A smile bent his lips.

Sunara was a bit unnerved, but she continued to argue her case. "Riddick, please. This is important to me. It gives me pleasure to spend time with the children," she spoke earnestly. "I promise to take every precaution."

Sometimes Sunara and Riddick would not see each other from sun up until sundown. But, no matter how busy their days were, they spent their nights together. Sometimes their coupling would be frenzied and savage; other times it was slow and delicious.

* * *

Riddick threw off the covers and slid out of bed, leaving Sunara to slumber alone as he did every night. He put on his clothes and found his way back to his room. Thorn greeted him, prickly body leaning into Riddick's leg until he got a rough pat on the side. Then Thorn went back to his favorite spot in the shadows by the bed and laid down again.

The only light coming into his bedroom was from the night sky. Riddick's eyes easily made out the outline of the furniture as he made his way to his own bed. He closed his eyes and forced his mind to relax, but was too agitated to sleep.

The nightmares were back. They were the reason Riddick forced himself from Sunara's bed each night. Sometimes he would thrash in his sleep so badly that he would wake up disoriented, body sweating, heart racing. Several times he woke up to find himself sitting up straight in bed, the shiv he always kept under his pillow squeezed so tight in his hand it left a painful depression in his flesh. He was worried of what he might do in his sleep if there was a body next to him.

It was raining, or it could have been ash; it was hard to tell in the dreamscape. The monsters always seemed to get him no matter how hard he ran toward the ship's lights which always seemed to be just out of reach. He dreamed of Fry. First, she was in front of him holding him up and then that faint knowing smile would curve over her lips. Suddenly, she would be ripped from his arms. Sometimes Fry would become Jack, the tough girl terrified of the dark. Riddick would hear Jack call out his name for help just before being torn out of his arms. At least, that was how his nightmares used to be. But, now it was Sunara being pulled from his arms and calling his name. This recent development disturbed him in ways he didn't even want to begin considering.

He had tried to forget _her_, he really had. Yet, every time he tried, a gnawing would grow in his belly. He had finally admitted to himself that Kyra had been partially right; he had promised to protect her, but he couldn't have from half way across the galaxy. And, leaving her in the care of the holy man with his own concerns wasn't the best option, but he hadn't had any others at the time. He didn't blame Imam, or even Kyra. He had even forgiven her for joining up with mercenaries on Lupus 5. After all, he would have done something similar if he had been in her situation.

He tried to tell himself he was doing all this so he would never have to run from mercs again. No one would ever lock him up in a cryo-tube and drop him at the nearest slam, not ever again. He was spending fourteen hour days working harder than he ever had before – at something honest no less – and taking satisfaction from seeing the planet grow from the few simple seeds of rebellion he had planted. He was too stubborn to admit he liked what he was doing. And, the nights spent next to a woman with a passion that matched his own wasn't bad either.

Sunara didn't make demands of him. She did her work and, when needed, consulted with him. She was very practical, reasonable, and had good instincts. They were companionable during the day and amorous at night. And, Riddick had grown to respect her.

But, with the recent change in his nightmare, he had become more withdrawn. Kyra kept creeping into his mind. Before, he had been a man with nothing to lose. Now, beyond the title and power it gave him, he had a sense of purpose. To lose it all now… He forced the thought from his mind.

Vaako and the Believers attacks had shifted to raids along the Tenarus system, farther away from Furya. Riddick should have been relieved, but he wasn't. He knew Vaako well enough to figure it was a ploy and Necro ships were vigilant. Their allies too kept a watchful eye.


	20. Chapter 19

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Nineteen

Sunara awoke for the third morning in a row and dashed to the lavatory. She retched until she could retch no more and then carefully cleaned herself up hands shaking. She waited for several minutes before she felt calm enough to call for breakfast.

It was no mystery; she knew she was pregnant. She had meditated and found the smallest trace of life inside her. Going to a doctor was premature, however. Even with the medical technology of the day, a doctor couldn't tell her more than she already knew.

The pregnancy was expected, yes, but not her sudden doubts.

Sunara had not tried to push Riddick. While he was attentive alone with her in the dark, the daytime hours found him avoiding her. She felt he was pulling away from her more, not less, the past few months.

She should be grateful to him, and she was. She had a home, her planet was being restored to its former glory, and her people loved her. Yet, she felt she would trade it all for the love of one man.

After her morning meal, she sought him out.

Sunara entered Riddick's study with Sid, her pet, padding along behind her. Over the few months he had grown plenty and was now half the size of Thorn. Thorn raised his head when they entered and stood up, growl-purring loudly in greeting. Sid idled over to his sire and ducked his head issuing his own plaintive growl-purr.

Riddick looked up, his eyes glittering in the low light of the room. He hastily shoved some reports into a pile and regarded her.

"I wanted to talk to you about the memorial," she started. She sat down across the broad table from him and laid out some artist sketches and a list.

The memorial would be to honor those who died in the Fall at the hands of the Lord Marshal. It would be a memorial park with the names of the names of the dead, nearly two million in all, etched on benches, paving stones, walls and planters.

"Can't you do that on your own?" he asked confused.

"Perhaps, but I wanted you to know," she began, "that I found no family name of _Riddick_. They may have changed the name when they went into hiding. I'm sorry."

Riddick scanned through the names and found she was telling the truth.

"However, I added some and wanted you to ask your opinion." She hesitated.

He looked up from the list and arched an eyebrow.

"I thought it would be appropriate to record the names of those victims up to the fall of the Lord Marshal as well."

Riddick frowned and look more closely at the list. _Imam_ and _Kyra_ were the last names listed. He flinched in his surprise.

"No," he said flatly.

"But, I thought it would be a way to honor –" Sunara started.

"I said no, Nara." His mouth was set in a grim line.

"Riddick, you may have buried Kyra's body on Helion Prime, but you have to grieve for her, and move on," Sunara tried to reason. "I'm not saying forget her."

Riddick suddenly rose from his chair and stomped across the room. "Why are you pushing this?" he asked accusingly, eyes boring into hers. "Why can't you accept my answer?"

Sunara looked away first, but he saw the flicker of pain before she did. "Because… I want us to have a chance. And, until you grieve for her, we can never have that chance," Sunara said desperately.

"I never made any promises to you I couldn't keep," he said, his voice starting to rise. "Don't try to make me into something I'm not, Nara."

She rose suddenly and crossed the room to him, face angry and hurt. "Have I asked you to be any different? No. And, I am not asking it of you now."

"Then what do you want from me?"

She shook her head looking down. Then met his eyes again. "I want all of you, not this half person trapped in his past," she said in frustration. "You give me a taste of you and then you pull away. It's torture!"

He didn't register any emotion at her words.

"I cannot compete with a ghost," she said quietly. "Please, let me help you move on."

"You can't," he said resolutely.

"Why?" She searched his hard face. "Explain it to me so I can understand. Please, Riddick," she pleaded.

"Anyone who gets close to me dies. I've watched them all stripped from me," his voice sounded small and far away.

"I am not Kyra, or Jack, or whoever," she clutched Riddick's arms gently. "I understand you loved her, but –"

"No, it wasn't like that," he interrupted. "She… looked up to me, tried to copy me. But, I left her alone. She ended up in slam all because she was trying to find me."

"You may feel some kind of responsibility towards her, but you are not responsible for Kyra's choices," she countered determinedly.

"That's not it," he growled and twisted away from her.

"Then what is it? What took place between you two in Necropolis?" she finally asked.

Riddick looked away and spoke in a whisper, "I asked her if she was with me, but she walked away. I thought the Lord Marshal had won, and she was lost to me." He laughed bitterly. "She was pretending… again. Faking it to survive."

"You couldn't have known," Sunara said and walked up behind him to gently touch his shoulder.

Riddick growled and grabbed Sunara roughly by her shoulders, fingers biting into her flesh. She winced at his bruising grip as he slammed her hard into the wall.

"Do you wanna know the truth?" he yelled. "I thought she had given up on me, but she hadn't. _I lost faith in her; she didn't lose it in me!_"

She saw the pain cross his eyes at his confession. His breath came in quick, angry bursts as he glared at Sunara. Her eyes were wide and tearful.

Finally, he seemed to realize how roughly he was holding her and thrust her away from him, a disgusted look on his face as he turned away from her again.

Sunara sighed wearily. "Then you have to forgive yourself before you can be whole again," she said resolutely.

Riddick gritted his teeth but didn't speak.

Her body sagged. Only the sound of Sid's claws marked her leaving.

* * *

Sunara ordered everyone to leave her alone in her rooms and collapsed into a sobbing heap on her bed. Even when she had believed herself an orphan and had cried herself to sleep at the temple, she had never felt this level of despair. Each beat of her heart revealed new depths to her pain.

Finally, Ravienne was brave enough to enter her room. Sunara continued to sob quietly while Ravienne prepared tea. She finally sat next to Sunara and coaxed some past her lips.

"How did I turn into such a fool?" Sunara cried.

Ravienne moved closer to Sunara, arms draped over her shoulders in a sisterly hug. "We cannot control our hearts' desires. To try to is the greatest folly."

"I thought I could deal with the little pieces he allowed me," Sunara said weakly. "But now, I can't," she sighed.

"Maybe, eventually, he will come around," Ravienne said trying to sound reassuring.

"I don't want 'eventually,'" she said. "I'm pregnant." Sunara tried to smile.

Ravienne gasped in joy and hugged Sunara tighter. "But, that's wonderful! You should be so happy to be starting a family and securing the throne, Sunara."

"I thought I would be. But, now… I don't know."

They hugged a few more moments before Sunara spoke again.

"Promise me something, Ravienne," Sunara finally said.

"Anything. You know that."

"Don't tell Riddick about the baby. Not yet." When Ravienne did not immediately answer, Sunara looked her in the eye. "Promise?"

"I think it's a bad idea. But, I promise you, Sunara, not a word."


	21. Chapter 20

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Twenty

_AN: Grr. I think I ended up creating a Mary Sue despite my best intentions. lol. Ah well, now I know better. Maybe I will write another story once I am done with this one. Feedback welcome!_

_ PS: MarsLover, you are welcome to punch Riddick but I think you might break your hand on his hard head!  
_

The sweat roll down his forehead but the goggles kept it from going into his eyes. He grunted with exertion as he blocked a kick to his torso. The physical activity felt good and helped clear his head a little.

Suddenly, Lieutenant Ayden swept out a foot and kicked Riddick's legs out from under him. Riddick landed hard on his back with a _wump_. Then Ayden straddled his chest, fist poised over Riddick's jaw.

"It's not often you are distracted enough for me to surprise you, my lord," the young man grinned. He bounced to his feet and held a hand out for Riddick.

Riddick took the offered hand and pulled himself up with a groan. It wasn't often he got time to keep up on his fighting skills and his body was feeling it. At least the aches and pains provided a distraction from his dark thoughts.

Ayden was a scrappy fighter and could usually keep up with Riddick. On his home planet he had been a runaway and lived on the streets, he'd said. He was fifteen when the Necros came and he converted seeing it as career advancement. He was a good companion and sparring partner. Riddick was still loath to call him friend.

Riddick mopped the sweat from his forehead with a towel and squeezed some water from a bottle into his mouth without saying a word. Ayden followed suit and sat for a moment, chest heaving. He kept his eyes on Riddick and noticed the tension still hadn't left him.

"Far be it for me to presume anything, my lord, "Ayden began. "But you seem preoccupied today."

Riddick grunted. Sunara's words kept coming back to him, _you have to forgive yourself… _

"Sometimes I think it would have been easier to keep running from mercs for the rest of my life," he said without humor.

Ayden chuckled anyway. "Leave it to the man who has everything to continue to be unsatisfied."

Riddick looked sharply at him. "I don't have everything," he grumbled.

"Oh? Let's see," Ayden said, looking around. "You live in a palace, control an entire armada, and have a beautiful wife."

Riddick scowled at the last comment. "I didn't sign up for all this," he said angrily sweeping a hand broadly across the room. "My fight with the Lord Marshal was personal, that's all. He stole everything that mattered to me. I didn't want his army."

"_You keep what you kill._ It was the Necromonger way but it didn't need to be your way," Ayden pointed out. "No one forced you to. You could have left it all to Vaako. He would have gladly taken over. You could have left the fleet behind and no one would have begrudged you."

Riddick grunted. "It was a means to an end."

"What _end_ were you expecting, my lord?" Ayden asked gently but firmly. "Now your life is intertwined with another, with all the people of this world, Necromonger, Furyan and the multitude of others that came to your call."

"Vaako is still out there and, while he is, no one around me is safe," Riddick growled and leaned against the wall.

"So why don't you go get Vaako? Knock him out once and for all?"

Riddick had been thinking the same thing and been trying to discover his current location. "It was easier when I was only looking out for only myself."

Ayden laughed. "I spent plenty of time on my own on the streets and I wouldn't call it _easy_." He thought for a moment, then said, "So, when you got yourself caught and sent to Crematoria to rescue Kyra, what 'end' was that?"

"I was supposed to look out for her, but she got herself in trouble, and I was the only one to get her out of it."

"But, you didn't have to," he stated the simple truth. "You exiled yourself to the ice planet, for what? You told her to stay in New Mecca, and she didn't listen. Seems like she got what she deserved."

Riddick growled and grabbed Ayden's shirt front. "She didn't deserve to be slaved out and sent to slam."

"She made her decisions, my lord. You have to accept that," Ayden said quietly, unafraid.

Riddick let go of Ayden and stepped back. "I've lost anyone who ever got close to me."

"Not everyone," Ayden said no longer speaking of Kyra. "Are you really protecting her? Or, are you protecting yourself?"

Riddick looked down, brows furrowed, and thought that over. He wasn't sure he liked the answer.

"My lord, with all due respect, you have to live the life in front of you." Ayden excused himself to get cleaned up for duty and slipped out of the room.

Riddick spent the next few hours trying to figure out Vaako's current location, but sightings had been shoddy, and he was still too distracted. By the time he made his way to Sunara's chambers, he was told she had left for the city.

* * *

It was a bad day to visit the hospital given her fight with Riddick. But, Sunara needed to get out of the palace, get some place that didn't remind her of _him_ at every turn. She and her bodyguards made their way through the back streets of the city trying to avoid the main crush of people in the city center. They encountered only a few people, and she nodded in greeting to them as they passed. 

Most days she would look forward to reading to Landry at the hospital, but today her emotions were in turmoil. Landry, a nine year old boy, was one of the children from the orphanage that Sunara visited. Three months ago he had been diagnosed with a genetic kidney disease. In that time, he had deteriorated quickly and been moved to the hospital for constant care. His kidneys were failing, but Sunara had tried desperately to find some doctor in the galaxy to help him. All of them had been pessimistic, so now Sunara visited Landry every other day and waited for the inevitable.

Her mood was made worse by the information the doctors gave her when she arrived. Landry's kidneys had stopped working, and now it was a matter of hours, perhaps, before his body completely shut down. Sunara informed her guards to expect a long night as she would stay until the boy's passing.

Sunara took several breaths before entering the room. By the time she opened the door, she was smiling brightly. The boy looked far too small in the huge bed. His eyes were glassy and his skin sallow looking. There were tubes of fluid dripping to some place out of sight.

"Your highness," Landry said, voice thready. He smiled, but his face looked sunken. "I didn't think you were coming today."

Sunara smiled and sat in the chair beside his bed. "Spending time with you is one of my favorite things. Besides, we need to finish the story we've been reading."

Landry frowned looking closely at the queen. "You look like you've been crying, my lady."

Her smiled wavered, but she recovered. "Maybe. I've been a little sad today."

"I hope you weren't crying for me. I couldn't bear it if I thought you were crying over me." His eyes closed as if he were very sleepy.

Sunara chuckled. Only nine years old and so serious. It broke her heart. "No, not crying over you."

He opened his eyes. "Then what?" Landry asked in an innocent voice, face twisted in concern.

Sunara took a deep breath. Here the boy was, not expected to last the night, and he was worried over her crying.

"I think the person I love will never be able to love me back." She smiled sadly at her confession.

"Have you told him?" Landry asked.

"Well, no –"

"Why don't you then?"

Sunara sighed. "It's… more complicated than that," she tried to explain.

"I think grown-ups say that to make something more complicated than it needs to be," Landry said in a voice that sounded older than his years.

Sunara chuckled. "You are probably right. Maybe I just need to tell him I love him."

"It's a good place to start." He smiled.

"Let's see if we can finish this story today," Sunara said, turning her attention away from herself.

"I dunno, highness. Today I feel awfully tired for some reason." Even as he spoke, his eyes closed again.

"Well, I will read and if you need to rest, just go right ahead, okay?" Her voice was laced with concern.

Landry smiled. "Okay, sounds good. I might take a nap," he sighed.

Sunara opened the book and resumed reading. Landry seemed to drift in and out of sleep, but she read on determined that he should hear the end of the story before he died. The doctor came and went; the nurses changed shift. Someone refreshed her glass of water. No one spoke to Sunara or told her visiting hours were over even when the sun had set. Sunara read on, her voice growing strained, her throat hoarse.

It must have been after midnight when she finished the story and closed the book. She watched Landry's regular breathing and glanced at the monitors. The doctor had told her he was in a coma and it wouldn't be long now. She vowed to stay with him to the end, so she settled into her chair as best she could. Her eye lids felt heavy, and she thought she would close them, just for a minute.


	22. Chapter 21

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Twenty-One

_NOTE: Sorry I have slowed down on updates a bit. Getting busier at work. Reviews are addictive; feed the beast. lol  
_

When Sunara awoke, she was confused, unsure how long she had been asleep. Her neck felt horribly stiff as she lifted her head from her chest. Something had woken her up, a constant whining sound. She raised her head and looked around, forgetting where she was until a doctor and nurse rushed in.

The doctor pressed something on the monitor next to Landry's bed and the siren stopped. The doctor began checking for vital signs, but the flat line on the screen told Sunara all she needed to know.

The doctor shook her head and met Sunara's eyes. "I'm sorry, highness."

"I know you did all you could, doctor. Thank you," Sunara said, her voice raw with emotion. "All arrangements have been made. Let me know if you need anything else." And with that, Sunara turned to leave.

Sunrise was about four hours away still as Sunara and her bodyguards made their way back through the now empty streets toward the palace. She felt hollow and paid little attention to the twists and turns she knew by heart. They turned a corner into a small plaza and Sunara collapsed on a bench, held her face in her hands and sobbed. Her guards looked uncertain as to what to do, so they stepped a few paces away and let their queen cry.

Sunara lost herself to her grief. She cried for Landry and for herself. At the temple, life had been so simple. She could have spent her whole life teaching and studying, and never wanted or expected anything more. But, it was all gone now and replaced by an ache in her chest she thought would suffocate her. When she used to feel this low, she had always been able to talk things over with the Reverend Mother. Thinking about the Reverend Mother brought back her guilt, and she cried harder.

When she felt a presence in front of her, she was startled out of her crying. She must have been dreaming, she thought. In front of her was the Reverend Mother herself, smiling sadly at Sunara and looking almost exactly as she had that last day on Kha Maruk.

"My child," she said, her voice strong and clear, not like a dream at all. She stepped forward and knelt to grasp Sunara's hands. Her eyes looked dark and sunken like she hadn't slept in days. "I'm sorry I haven't been there for you."

Sunara looked down, her warm hands in Malenka's cold ones. Otherwise, they felt so real. "Reverend Mother, I'm so sorry… sorry for what I said to you last. I have missed your counsel desperately." Sunara spoke in rush, trying to get all the words out at once and choked on a sob.

If Sunara hadn't been so grief-stricken, she might have noticed the soft _thump-thump_ as her guards bodies fell to the ground. She might have realized there was something wrong with the deathly cold hands in hers. She might have noticed the dark shapes moving among the shadows on the outer edge of the courtyard. She might have, but she didn't.

"Shh, child, no time for that now," Malenka said. Her eyes flickered to something behind Sunara and then quickly back to Sunara. "I'm sorry too, for all the pain I caused you in the past… and for what you will suffer in the future."

Sunara looked confused. "What are you saying, Mother?"

A shadow loomed over Sunara. Before she could cry out for help, something landed hard on her head and the ground suddenly zoomed towards her. Then everything went dark.

"You fool! If you damage her, Vaako will be angry with both of us," Malenka hissed.

"If you hadn't tried to warn her, I would have had time to gas her like we planned," a man's voice said as he stood over Sunara's prone body. Four more shapes emerged from the shadows. "Bag her and get her into cryo. Hurry," he ordered.

"Yes, cap'n," one of the other shadows said.

The figures rushed forward and loaded Sunara's limp body into a hover-cart and closed the lid. Then the group quietly made their way to their ship.

* * *

Riddick paced angrily in his office, Thorn pacing at his side.

He had thought over what Sunara and Ayden had said. He struggled with his guilt. Every day since he had buried Kyra, he thought eventually she would fade from his mind. He had thought that keeping his distance from Sunara would protect her the way he had tried to protect Kyra.

When he had learned that Kyra had run off, he was angry that she hadn't listened to his warnings. And, finding out she had joined with mercs on Lupus 5 felt like a betrayal considering all she knew about his past. He had been angry at her and at himself, but it hadn't changed his sense of protection and responsibility for her. Breaking her out of Crematoria had been his way of trying to make it up to her.

Maybe Sunara was right; he had to get over her and move on.

He disliked Sunara's frequent trips into the city, but she had never stayed out all night like this. Her bodyguards had reported from the hospital earlier that night and explained the situation. Nevertheless, he told them to report in every hour until they were safely back in the palace. But, they had missed the last report time and dawn would be coming soon.

Lieutenant Ayden finally marched into the room. "Highness, we found her guard dead. No sign of the queen."

Riddick's blood went cold. He thought it had to be Vaako's work but there had been no Believer activity near Furya in months. That in itself had worried Riddick.

"Show me," Riddick commanded and began to follow Ayden.

A frantic Ravienne and Aereon rushed toward Riddick before he could leave the palace.

"Your majesty! I just heard." Ravienne's face showed her concern. Riddick knew the two were friends.

"Stay here and let me know if somehow she makes it back," he ordered.

"Yes, majesty, but there is something you should know," she panted. "She begged me to tell you yet."

Riddick raised an eyebrow and waited.

"She is pregnant."

Riddick's blood went about five degrees colder and his jaw tightened before he barked orders to his soldiers for a full search of the city.

* * *

Lensers paced the courtyard area while Riddick surveyed the place where the guards' bodies had been found. The corpses had already been removed and the area cordoned off. Aereon had insisted she go with him.

"Five men, one woman," Riddick commented, crouching down to inspect the patterns in the dirt. He could make out the clear impression of a body slumped in the dirt, but no blood. His tension decreased a millimeter.

"How do you know?" Aereon asked.

"Five different pairs of boots, deep impressions. But these footprints –" he said pointing to a small area" – are lighter and partially swept away by the hem of a skirt."

Aereon's brow knitted together. "They used a woman to lure her away from her guard?"

"I don't think so. We're missing something."

Just then Lieutenant Ayden approached. "We found something unusual, sire."

Ayden led the way to a corner of the intersection and pointed to the ground. It looked like someone had written something with a fingertip in the sand except that the lettering was dark and glossy. The message read ERAS FORTIS.

Riddick checked the writing carefully and tapped his fingertip on it eliciting the _tink_ of glass.

Aereon gasped first. "Malenka! Is it possible she survived?"

"I wouldn't call it _survive_," Riddick grumbled.

"If she is under Vaako's influence, she must still have enough free will to leave us a message," Aereon said.

"But what does it mean? Is it a person's name?" Ayden asked.

"Lieutenant, get me a list of all outbound vessels," Riddick ordered.

"Yes, your majesty," he said and strode off.

"If Vaako has her…" Aereon began.

"We can't be sure it is Vaako," but even as he said it, he didn't believe it.

Riddick turned on his heel heading back for the palace.

"Where are you going?" Aereon asked, running to catch up with him.

"To call in some favors," he replied.

By the time they returned to the palace, a junior lieutenant had a list of ships that had left the planet within the last eight hours.

"Three Necro cruisers, one passenger transport registered to Helion Prime and one Dubayan trading vessel refueled," the young man recited.

Riddick stopped in his tracks. Since Baron Dubay's removal from the planet months before, Furya had not traded with him, nor had Riddick ordered his ships turned away. A trading vessel would be innocuous enough not to draw attention.

"What's the name of the last vessel?" Riddick asked Ayden.

"The _Eras Fortis_, my lord."

"The baron would not be foolish enough to conspire with Vaako, would he?" Aereon asked, her voice incredulous.

"_The enemy of my enemy…_" Riddick trailed off. Then he turned and began walking to his chambers to find his armor.

Aereon glided beside him. "What do you plan to do, Riddick?" she never called him by his titles.

"Malenka left us a breadcrumb to follow, so let's follow it."

_AN: Sorry MarsLover and BlckCat... no resolution yet! You'll have to stay tuned for more._


	23. Chapter 22

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Twenty two

The _Eras Fortis_ sat in the landing bay of Riddick's flagship and its crew kneeled in cuffs as the Necros searched the ship. Lensers scoured the ship for any sign of the queen. They found some evidence of her DNA in an abandoned cryo tube. Holding a Dubayan trading vessel hostage would probably create a political incident. _Fuck 'em…_ Riddick thought.

Riddick swore. _God damned cryo._ Sunara would have been terrified out of her mind and unable to speak or move, but awake and aware, just like Riddick always was. There was something about their Furyan blood that stayed awake, the more primitive side of their nature. The image in his head of Sunara struggling against cryo was so vivid he saw red and immediately had to breathe for several moments before he trusted himself not to kill every single one of the crew.

Riddick strode over to the captain of the _Eras Fortis_ and grabbed the man by the throat pulling him to his feet. He snarled, "_Where is she?_"

The man sputtered and choked trying to protest any knowledge. But, Riddick was furious and shook the man, pulling him off his feet to dangle in the air. The man's face was turning red and his eyes were bulging, but Riddick was relentless.

"Epsilon system!" he finally gasped. "Delivery to… Epsilon."

Riddick dropped the man at once, and he slumped to the ground gasping for air and choking.

"You heard the man!" he ordered and continued to the bridge.

* * *

Commander Toal stood on the bridge of Riddick's flagship and helped monitor for any sign of Vaako's fleet. Riddick appreciated the big man's support, but he also knew he would pay a price. Lajjun had been adamant that Toal not go since she had already lost one husband to violence. She was terrified that Imam would grow up without his adoptive father. But, Toal wouldn't listen to her pleas. Riddick had asked for his help in finding the queen, and he couldn't turn that down. Toal was one of the few soldiers Riddick trusted with his life.

Ayden strode in and addressed Riddick, "Your highness, she's arrived."

Riddick nodded in acknowledgment. "Let me know at the first sign," he said to Toal who grunted in reply.

Riddick found his way to his chambers. Eve Logan stood in his room looking a little incredulous. Riddick was a bit surprised too that she had come when he called her.

Riddick had tracked her down from Lupus 5 and found out she had bought herself a shiny new ship and even had a four-man crew working for her. She'd quickly established herself in merc circles as a bad-ass who brought in a high percentage of bounties. She even shared generously with her crew. Rather than the usually fifty percent off the top, she shared her bounty equally. It earned her a good reputation with her men.

_An ex-con tracking a merc… there's irony for you,_ Riddick said to himself.

"To what do I owe the honor of being summoned in front of King Riddick himself?" Eve said sarcastically.

Riddick ignored the sarcasm and explained the situation to her trying to keep most of the anger out of his voice.

"So let me get this straight… you want my help in tracking down Vaako's ship so you can get your wife back?" she finally asked when he had finished.

"He had her kidnapped off Furya as some way to strike at me. With the power he's gained from the UnderVerse, there is no telling what he'll do to her."

"What about me being a merc? I remember what you told me on Furya, so why should I help you now?"

"You are a damned good pilot and have the resources to get close to Vaako without alerting him," Riddick reasoned. "I seem to get close and he gets warned."

She sniffed at his compliment. "What's in it for me?" she said flatly.

Riddick sighed. At least she hadn't spit in his face which he'd half expected. "I can pay you a standard bounty fee."

She laughed derisively. "Riddick, you can barely afford your reconstruction from what I hear. How are you ever gonna pay me 15 mill?"

Riddick frowned and closed his eyes behind his goggles. "I'll figure out a way."

"Liar," she sneered. "I'm not willing to wait around for a payday. If you want me to help, I want something concrete."

He looked up to see her leaning against the wall, legs crossed in front of her. She was smiling.

"You have something in mind?"

"I want hunting rights in Furyan territory," she said self-assuredly.

Riddick exhaled a breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding. Eve knew Riddick's enmity for mercs. He had warned her when she left, but now he needed her help. She'd been right; he didn't have enough money on hand to pay her for her time.

"System only, not on planet," he murmured, gritting his teeth.

"No interference?"

"You have my word," he replied.

She let out a half chuckle and crossed the room to hold out her hand. "Deal."

He shook her hand, and she turned on her heel to saunter out of the room, but she stopped just before the doorway.

"You do know this is probably a trap?" she asked turning back toward Riddick.

Riddick grinned his evil grin. "I'm counting on it."

She turned around again and left as Aereon fluttered in. The women nodded at each other in passing.

"She has agreed to help?" Aereon asked.

Riddick simply nodded and scanned the reports of the last sighting of Vaako's ships.

"How long can we afford to wait, Riddick?" Aereon's voice held urgency.

"What do you want me to do, Aereon?" Anger and frustration edged Riddick's question. "We have gotten close to Vaako three times and each time he's evaded me. I've got Telleck looking with no luck and now I just hired a tracker who might get close."

Aereon knew Riddick was just voicing the same frustration she was feeling. She knew that he had had little sleep over the last ten days since Sunara's disappearance. Worse, he blamed himself for her capture.

Aereon sighed and stepped closer. ""I'm sorry, Riddick. I know this can't be easy for you."

"Vaako has some kind of power to bring back the dead, and my wife and child are at his mercy." Riddick laughed bitterly. "And, what would be easy about that, Aereon?" He sunk his head in his hands.

He felt like his nightmares were becoming real. He wasn't sure if he could go through all this again. Carolyn, Imam, Kyra. Everyone he tried to help, everyone he let get a little bit close paid the price for it.

More importantly, he was feeling a possessiveness he'd never experienced before, not even for Kyra. Maybe it was knowing Sunara was carrying his child, but he knew that he just had to get them back safely. If he didn't... he couldn't think about that.

Aereon stepped closer to him as he sat there, hunched over and looking very much like the weary king.

"You will get her back. Who better to?" Aereon said determinedly.

Riddick finally looked up, his jaw set, eyes glittering in the dim room. "I have to find her first."

"And, how do you plan to get her off Vaako's ship once we do find her?"

"Leave that to me. I am the master of getting in and out of difficult places." Riddick smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.

The Big Evil was back.


	24. Chapter 23

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Twenty-three

_NOTE: There are some graphic descriptions in the following segment. The story is rated T. I changed the rating to reflect similar stories.  
_

Pieces of memory returned to Sunara. Flashes of images… Landry, the courtyard, Malenka. Then a ship and a feeling like being submerged in water without drowning. She'd tried to call for help, but her muscles wouldn't respond. Time was disjointed as her thoughts ran freely but her body felt like a brick. Finally, she must have been sedated and moved to wherever she was now because she didn't remember anything after a certain point.

The ringing in her ears finally subsided. Sunara lay on something hard, cold – the floor. She was careful to control her breathing, to not give anything away in her movements. Feigning unconsciousness, she stretched her senses out, concentrating on the tiny movements of air across the hairs on her skin, breathing in the traces of recycled air and something putrid, and listening deeply for any trace of sound. There was the sound of rasping or scraping and some kind of wet smacking.

There was something or someone near her; she could feel the hair on her arms moving slightly and the sound within feet of her confirmed it. Her wrists were clasped in something cold, probably manacles. Slowly, maintaining control of her breathing, she cracked an eyelid open and tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

A human form was crouched over something on the ground. It was obviously a woman since she was wearing a once sumptuous gown of gold cloth now tattered and stained black in some places. Her dark hair hung limp and matted like a veil concealing whatever she had on the ground. The rasping sound was coming from her, from something she seemed to be gnawing on.

Sunara tried to unobtrusively shift to see where she was. The room was luxuriously decorated, a bed dressed on rich red fabric, sculptures of twisted and tormented bodies and a ceiling of rounded and smooth black material. It was a Necromonger ship. But then, why was she chained?

The rasping had stopped and Sunara shifted back to the woman. But, it wasn't a woman anymore; it couldn't possibly be. The eyes fixed on her were rheumy white and sunken in her face, and prominent cheekbones exaggerated the shrunkeness of her face. The mouth was thin and covered in red smears, the bared teeth yellow, the gums black, and her breath was fetid, smelling of something rotten. In her hand, the thing being gnawed upon looked like a human femur bone near picked-clean of its flesh.

Sunara's eyes flew open and she gasped in horror, making no pretense now about being unconscious. She scrambled back, away from the rank breath and horror, but the chains drew her short and she half-crouched in the corner of the room trying to suck in a clean breath.

The female cackled, shaking in laughter, mouth gapping. Sunara could see the half chewed flesh, and she gagged. The sedative, the stench and the pregnancy all conspired against her. She barely had time to throw her head to the side, so she didn't puke all over herself. There wasn't much in her stomach so she dry heaved, making her weaker until she collapsed to her knees, whimpering weakly.

A door whooshed open and boots pounded heavily across the floor stopping next to the woman who still cackled and shook in delirium. The shadow that followed moved with inky slowness, almost leaving dark smudges along the floor and wall. It was such a deep black is seemed to absorb all light and brought with it freezing coldness.

"I see you have met my wife, Lady Vaako," his voice held pride and something like affection.

Lady Vaako stay crouched at Lord Vaako's feet and leaned against his legs in what might have been adoration, her hand still grasping the leg bone. The shadow shifted, encircling the couple almost protectively.

"She's … an abomination," Sunara spat out, feeling bile rise again and trying to hold it down.

Vaako lunged forward in a blur as he backhanded her across the face. Sunara's head snapped back and against the wall. Her left cheek exploded in pain. She squeezed her eyes tightly trying to ignore the stars spinning in front of them.

"She and I are the rightful rulers of the Necromongers. But, your husband took her from me." Vaako kneeled in front of Sunara, eyes hard. "He took her from me, and now I have something of his."

Sunara tried to make sense of his words, but the pain in her head and the nausea made it hard. "What do you mean?"

Vaako grinned without humor. "Your husband's ships attacked my wife's lone cruiser. I was coming back from the threshold of the UnderVerse when I heard of the attack." His voice softened as walked back over to the figure still gnawing the bone. "She was dead when I got there, a day too late."

Sunara was sure she would be sick again. She pleaded with her body to cooperate. She couldn't let Lord Vaako know about the baby. There was no telling what he would do to her then.

His hand caressed her cheek like a lover. "I couldn't bring her back completely. Some side effects of her condition, unfortunately, are" he began as if he was a doctor discussing a patient's prognosis, "that she eats only human flesh and her bite is deadly. The bacteria in her saliva kill in an hour." He patted the matted hair absently. "I seem to be the only one she tolerates close to her. Whatever made her my wife is gone, however."

"Whatever made her human is gone," Sunara whispered.

The inky shadow seemed to coalesce and push out from Vaako's feet toward Sunara. She shrank back in horror, feeling the cold coming with the shadow. A tendril detached from the mass of darkness and stretched toward Sunara's neck. She gasped, her breath turning to white vapor in front of her eyes. The tendril moved to wrap around her neck, intending to throttle or choke her. But, before the black snake could firmly grab on, her chest throbbed and a blue-white light flared around her once. The tendril dissolved like smoke in the wind.

Vaako grunted as if he had taken a physical blow. "Bitch!" he bit out.

He grabbed her for real this time, his hand pinching her airway closed. She clawed at his hand, but he was too strong. She knew there was something Riddick had taught her about choke holds and how to evade them. But, her mind was fuzzy and panic was setting in. Vaako leaned over her, gloating at her helplessness.

"I am going to enjoy this immensely, Queen Sunara," Vaako sneered. "Riddick is going to rescue you in time to watch you die. Then I get to bring you back to life… and do it again… and again. Your dear Riddick won't be able to save you either."

Sunara's stomach roiled again, her eyes wide in horror. His eyes were hard, merciless and tinged with the scariest thing of all… a fanatical madness.

Lady Vaako started making hungry mewling sounds as Sunara lost consciousness.

* * *

Sunara couldn't keep herself from letting out a whimper as she awoke from her awkward position slumped on the floor. Her throat was sore from where Vaako had choked her. She tested her hands. They remained shackled and her flesh under the metal was starting to become raw. She craned her neck to look around, but even Lady Vaako was gone.

She tried to test her bonds and find a weakness in the link or anchors. She only succeeded in bloodying her wrists more. She screamed in her frustration but finally gave up and collapsed into a sobbing heap for a few minutes.

Finally, Sunara pulled her thoughts together. She had no time for self-pity. She focused her mind, fighting down her despair and checked on the baby. The flutter of a heartbeat greeted her and she counted the beats, around 200 beats per minute. The baby wasn't suffering too badly hopefully although it would only be a matter of time before Vaako noticed her belly growing, especially since she wasn't being fed much.

She needed to focus long enough to find a plan to get herself out of here. She couldn't risk Riddick coming to her rescue. If Vaako got to carry out his plan for revenge, she would never be able to forgive herself for the agony Riddick would suffer.

Thinking of him nearly brought her to tears. _No time for that now. Work on a plan._ If only she could somehow send him a message to stay away.

A message? Why not? Her mark and his had warned them of each other's presence before. What if she could tap into that link?

She prayed that she wouldn't be disturbed by anything and prepared herself for probably the deepest meditation of her life. She breathed deeply several times, feeling her heartbeat steady and then slow. She ignored the aches and pains and searched deeper in her body for what she was looking for, a white flame.

She found it after searching awhile. Time seemed intensely slow here, but she focused on the flame and spoke his name in her heart, _Riddick_.

Nothing happened.

She waited as seconds seemed to stretch into hours.

_Riddick, hear me now_.

Damn, it wasn't working.

_Nara?_ A faint baritone voice.

_Riddick! Listen to me carefully_, her urgency rang through the mental connection. _Do not come for me_.

_Why not? _He sounded angry. _I know Vaako took you. We are coming to rescue you._

_It's a trap. Please… _she pleaded.

_Trust me…_

The connection broke off suddenly and Sunara's eyes flew open at what had distracted her. Vaako was standing over her, slapping her face.

"Wake up!" Vaako's voice rang with amusement. "No dying yet. I'm not through with you."


	25. Chapter 24

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Twenty-four

_AN: I still don't any part of COR, just my own characters. Enjoy! The end is coming soon!_

She had to escape. She had to get herself away from Vaako, or she jeopardized the baby and Riddick. A check on Lady Vaako showed she was busy at work on a new piece of meat.

Sunara's raw wrists were still shackled, so to get free she used her blood to lubricate the metal. She worked her right hand first, slowly but persistently tugging it through the ring, twisting to get a better angle. She got stuck halfway through, however.

She knew what she had to do. Using the shackle itself as leverage, she twisted her hand and flexed her muscles in her hand until she felt the pop of her thumb dislocating. She bit back the explosion of pain and panted for a moment before trying to continue sliding her hand out. This time she was able to work her hand free.

Again, she checked on Lady Vaako. Then she repeated the painful process with her left hand, careful not to let the empty chains clang against the floor. It took another few moments for her to painfully reset her joints. Where she had been biting her lip was now bloody and her hands were already turning purple. A single tear stole down her cheek, but she impatiently brushed it away and looked around the room for anything she could use as a weapon.

On a nearby pedestal stood one of those horrible Necromonger statues, a naked male figure, back arched and mouth screaming in pain as he drove a huge spike into his forearm. Sunara willed her ruined hands to grip it and crept along as quietly as she could making sure she kept herself to Lady Vaako's back.

She was almost on top of the lady when the gnawing stopped, head cocked to one side as if listening for something. Sunara froze and stopped breathing. Lady Vaako began to turn her head just as Sunara swung the statue like a bat. The lady was surprisingly fast and dodged the worst of the blow, hissing in anger. She quickly recovered and turned her full attention on Sunara. Then Lady Vaako lunged forward, but Sunara slammed her in the gut with the base and then yelped in pain as her hands got the brunt of the blow. The lady bent in half exhaling a foul breath just as Sunara lifted the base hard into her chin. The vile woman's body slumped to the ground in a heap.

The noise inside the room had alerted the guard outside and the door slid open. Sunara had just enough time to close the distance and catch him by surprise. She plowed the guard in the face with the statue. He slumped to the floor, thick dark blood oozed from the hole where his face used to be. Sunara threw down the statue and kicked the guard inside in time to slip past the closing door.

She shook from the adrenalin running through her veins and took a breath trying to get oriented. Her hands screamed in agony and she clutched them to her chest, but she had no time to worry about the damage she had done to them. She listened carefully and decided to flee down the right corridor. She just prayed she could find an unguarded shuttle bay and get to Riddick before he got to her. If all else failed, she needed to find an airlock and make sure Vaako wouldn't have a chance to complete his plan for revenge. She felt a double flutter in her belly at that thought. _I'm sorry, little one; it may be the only way to protect your father._

She continued down corridors trying to remember the basic layout of the Necro flagship, Necropolis. A few times small groups of people walked down the hallway, but she was able to evade them in and hide in the shadows. No Lensers were with them, thankfully. It looked like she just might get out of here before anyone was the wiser. She was sure this was the correct way to the landing bays. Now she just had to remember the rudimentary piloting lessons Riddick had insisted upon and hope her hands could hold a steering wheel.

* * *

"Requesting emergency dock, cargo ship _Eras_ _Fortis_," a voice crackled through the communication band. 

The Necro commander in charge of the bridge scanned the ship requesting assistance and received scrambled readings. "_Eras Fortis_, we have no emergency systems here. I suggest you get to the nearest planet."

The voice crackled again. "That's the problem. We have a coolant leak wrecking havoc on our systems. I just need a corner of your landing bay. If I can patch it, I can limp to the next planet."

The ship was not unfamiliar to the comm officer, so he spoke up. "That's Baron Dubay's ship we hired for Furya, Commander. But that's not Captain Raine's voice." He frowned.

The commander spoke back into the comm unit. "Put Captain Raine on," he demanded.

The voice crackled again, laughing. "Captain Raine got a big payday and is on a long vacation. I am acting Captain Logan." She emphasized _big_ and _long_.

Lord Marshal Vaako stepped from the shadows. "Put them in bay one and keep a close eye on them. One hour maximum," he said.

The commander nodded and relayed the information to the captain.

"Plenty of time. Appreciate it," Logan responded.

By the time Eve set the cargo ship down, vapor was hissing from several places along its belly. She and her four man crew disembarked and were greeted by six Necro guards holding guns on them. The crew raised their hands.

One of the guards stepped in front of the rest. "Captain Logan, we must search your ship. Stow all your weapons."

Eve smiled. "Already done. You're welcome to search the ship, but just dropped my load, so we're empty."

The five remaining soldiers swarmed the ship and quickly reported back to their lieutenant. When nothing suspicious was found, Eve ordered the lanky young kid to break out the tools while she went back to inspect the damage careful not to get too close to the leaking vapor. The Necro lieutenant followed her.

"Thanks for letting us dock. I would have never made it to the next watering hole. Must have caught some stray space debris or something," Eve said as she made a show of inspecting the scrapes on the hull. From the corner of her eye, she saw the ventilation grate in the wall was ajar and was careful to keep the Necro's attention away from it.

"Well, just make sure you are out of here in an hour," he replied gruffly.

"Sure, no prob."

Just then a loud crash came from the inside of the ship, and Eve hustled over. The tall lanky kid had managed to up-end the entire toolbox.

"Sorry, Cap'n." He smiled a toothy apologetic grin up at her.

"Dammit, Greenhorn. Get this crap picked up. We're in a hurry," she barked.

The kid ducked his head and began scrambling to pick up the tools spread out in front of him. He long arms and legs gave him an ungainly look, but Eve knew he had the fastest draw she had ever seen. That's why she had hired him.

The lieutenant seemed satisfied and retreated with his guards a distance away from their ship. Eve and her crew quickly set to work.

* * *

Riddick, Toal, Ayden, Aereon and six others dragged themselves along the ventilation shaft, Riddick in the lead, Ayden in the rear. Aereon had insisted on coming with them determined to find Malenka and do whatever was necessary. He was sure Aereon had never done any kind of stealth work before but being an Air Elemental gave her a distinct advantage since she hovered over the surface of things. 

Having memorized the ship's schematic, at a split in the duct Toal signaled to Riddick he would go right, toward the main deck. He flashed a thumbs-up at Riddick's nod and broke off. Three others followed Toal, packs of bombs strapped to their backs.

Riddick's group moved left, inching closer to the ship's brig hoping to find Sunara and Malenka there. They found their way to a storage room and Riddick kicked out the grate. He crawled through first and immediately crouched. His silver eyes scanned the gloom as he listened carefully before signaling the others to come out.

Riddick listened intently at the door which led directly into the brig. He heard two voices but couldn't make out what they said. He motioned to Lieutenant Ayden who took out a small pad and held it up to the door control panel. It scrolled through a series of icons before the pad on the door frame turned from red to green. Ayden stepped back and withdrew a dagger as did the others except for Aereon who hovered in the farthest corner. At a nod from Riddick, everyone but he pulled down night-vision glasses and Ayden tapped a button.

Simultaneously the lights went out and the storeroom's doors slid open. The brig guards had only enough time to shout in curiosity at the lights going out. And, then their shouts turned to wet gargles as knives sliced deep into their throats. Re-animated or not, cutting through the jugular and windpipe causes a body to bleed quickly and makes yelling for help impossible.

Riddick dropped the body in his arms and let it slump to the ground. Ayden stepped up to the console and tapped up the display of occupied cells. An image showed only three cells were occupied and only one was a woman. Ayden focused in on the one image, and it expanded into a larger view.

Aereon gasped; slumped into a corner in a tattered red gown was Malenka. Aereon looked up at Riddick and he nodded. She dashed off with two soldiers in tow to retrieve the jailed Elemental.

But, Riddick was intent on the screen as Ayden was already tapping in directions. Riddick's ground his teeth trying to be patient. He knew if Sunara was not here, it would take a bit longer than he wanted to to find where she was being kept. Other than that, everything was going according to plan.

Then the alarm sounded.


	26. Chapter 25

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Twenty-five

The klaxon was deafening in the small room.

One thing Riddick had learned in all his years of experience on the run was that there was no such thing as a perfect plan.

"Crap," he grunted. "Plan B."

"What's that?" Ayden shouted.

"We fight our way out," Riddick hollered with a wry smile.

Aereon and the other soldiers had Malenka's arms over their shoulders. She had smudges all over her body and dress, but otherwise she looked unharmed. She smiled weakly up at Riddick and her eyes had the sunken look of the re-animated. Riddick's knife flashed in his hands before he even thought about it.

"Riddick!" Aereon cried.

"No, Aereon. He is right to be cautious," despite her look, Malenka's voice was strong. "If I weren't an Elemental, Vaako would have control over my body _and_ mind."

"It's not the mind I'm worried about," Riddick growled. He vividly remembered the balls of fire she had flung down on the Believers' ships on Kha Maruk.

Malenka smiled weakly. "I give you my word… I will not attack you until he orders me to. Until then, I want to help you get back Sunara."

Riddick hesitated and then nodded.

"She was being held in Vaako's quarters," she confirmed. "But if the alarm has been sounded, she may be under increased guard."

Ayden tapped again at the console and security feeds of the corridors flashed across the screen until it stopped on the door to Vaako's chambers. A body of a guard was being carried and Vaako looked to be angrily ordering his men to do a search of the ship.

"Good girl," Riddick said quietly.

Then he ordered Ayden to start scanning the corridors.

"There!" Riddick barked and Ayden scanned back a frame.

Riddick had barely seen the flutter of cloth before it disappeared behind a series of cooling tubes on the same deck they were on.

"Aereon, Vendic and Zeron, get Malenka to the ship. You two are with me," Riddick ordered.

Aereon's group quickly retraced their steps to the ventilation shaft while Riddick and his men marched down the corridors making no attempt to hide now. He slashed his way through the few startled Necro Believers they encountered. The Big Evil was in his element… and he was pissed.

Riddick came to the cooling tubes he believed Sunara had ducked behind. He knew he had the right spot when his chest throbbed and glowed gently.

"Nara?" he called out, peering into the gloom behind the tubes. He thought he heard a rustle. "Nara, it's me, come out."

"Riddick?" Her voice was small, but soon he saw the glint of her eye.

"It's ok, but we need to move now." His voice rang with urgency.

Her slight form emerged from the hiding spot and she all but threw herself into Riddick's arms. She was warm and alive if not shaking. Riddick crushed her to his body in relief before pushing her away, looking her over to see if she was injured. He noticed the bloody wrists, purpled fingers and split lip. But, otherwise she looked whole.

"I'm sorry, Riddick. About everything I said to you," Sunara said in a rush.

"Shh," he said and held her close again. "It doesn't matter now. I'm not letting you go."

"I'm sorry for pushing you."

"No, you were right, Nara," he murmured. "But right now we have to get off this ship."

She cried for another moment, clinging to him and feeling some measure of safety in his strong arms.

"The baby?" he asked pushing her away again to look intently at her face.

Sunara's eyes widened, but then smiled. "Fine. We're both fine."

"I'm going to kill him this time," Riddick swore. He growled in such a primitive way that even Sunara wanted to shrink from him.

"I told you it was a trap," she remonstrated. "Vaako wants to kill me and bring me back to torture you for killing Lady Vaako."

Riddick tried to absorb the information and get Sunara moving at the same time, shoving her in the direction of the landing bay. Ayden and the junior soldier took up the rear.

"Don't worry. We're putting a chink in his plan." His voice a hint of amusement and the four of them dashed down the hallway.

"What do you mean?" she tried to ask as she jogged in front of Riddick.

"Toal is rigging the ship to explode. We have to get off the ship before the bombs detonate," Riddick said matter-of-factly.

Sunara picked up her pace while Riddick surged ahead of her to take the lead.

They made the next right turn down a short hallway lined with columns, matching Necro statues at either end. These displayed two male figures, one his back to the ground, crying out in rage ready to plunge a sword with a thorn-like blade into the gut of the man over him who was driving a spear down toward the prostrate man's chest in an image of mutual annihilation.

Half way down the hallway, both ends began filling with an inky blackness like a fog rolling across an open sea. Riddick stopped short and Sunara almost ran into his back. Ayden and other officer stopped and immediately encircled the group, backs to each other and holding up Necro rifles. The dark cloud absorbed the light and warmth of the corridor making its way swiftly toward the cluster of people, surrounding them. Yet, it stopped in a two meter circle.

"Riddick, nice of you to finally make it," Lord Vaako's mocking voice rang out from in front of Riddick.

"Vaako," Riddick growled. "I should have killed you before. Now I am going to remedy that."

Vaako's laughter bounced eerily in the corridor and seemed to surround them. "Try it."

Sunara screamed. A form flew out from the black, a Necro Believer with haunted eyes, axe over his head and aimed at Riddick. He easily side-stepped the swing and rammed a knife in the base of the skull. The man dropped instantly thick near-black blood oozing from the wound.

"Protect Sunara," Riddick ordered Ayden and the soldier as men began to emerge from the shadows in ones and twos.

Ayden pushed Sunara close to a large column, her back to it. The corridor was too confined for a gunfight, so Ayden whipped out his own daggers as did the other man and snarled at the onslaught.

Riddick used his dual blades, at first slashing up under armor into bellies producing thick dark blood. But, it only seemed to slow the re-animated soldiers down, not mortally wound them. Quickly, Riddick had four attackers on him and he was afraid they would break away and go after Sunara. He grabbed one of the men and used him as a shield from the slashing Necro sword and axe. The man cried out and began to go limp, so Riddick cut his throat and tossed him toward the other three. It was enough of a distraction as the other guards tried to avoid the dead weight. He swung his body in a low crouch and slashed up under the helmets nearly decapitating one, cutting another's throat, and then ramming another straight into the face plate.

He heard a scream from behind him. Ayden was slashing at two Believers, back to Sunara. His knives barely slowed them down.

"Go for their throats!" Riddick hollered to Ayden.

Ayden roared in fury and then grinned a wicked smile as he began slashing up with his own blades. But, his companion quickly went down under a blow from a sword.

Riddick's heart raced faster, adrenalin coursing through his veins and making him whir faster, blades a blur. His chest hurt but not from exertion. He'd felt that pain before when he'd faced Vaako. The swirling blackness around them seemed to retreat in his fury as more and more Believers became revealed from the shadows. They lunged at Riddick and Ayden over and over. The floor was littered with bodies and gore making it slippery.

Riddick heard a deep cry from behind him and glimpsed Ayden falling under an axe blow to his chest. Sunara screamed again and Riddick had a moment of panic while his attention was on the man in front of him.

The man with the axe taunted Sunara but didn't swing. Obviously, Vaako had given orders not to kill her prematurely. Sunara was holding one of Ayden's daggers in a shaking hand. She knew she didn't have enough strength in her damaged hands to actually ram the blade into the man, but she couldn't afford him to get to close and get a hold of her. She also knew that the revived men seemed immune to what were normally mortal wounds. So, she flashed the knife threateningly to keep him at bay and wracked her brain for ideas.

Suddenly, Sunara knew what she had to do. She may not be able to kill them, but she could disable them easily. Revived bodies or not, kneecaps are fragile things.

By the time Riddick had dispatched the warrior in front of him and was finally able to turn to check on Sunara, she had spun and kicked out, connecting with the big soldier's left knee. There was a crunching sound, and he cried out in pain and fell to one knee. Sunara swept her other leg and the right knee crumpled. Then she sidled away from the flailing man's reach.

Riddick caught the next man and spun him around, jabbing the blade into the base of the skull. The man fell to his knees and then collapsed on his side. Riddick pulled the man's pistol and fired it at the screaming guard floundering by Sunara. His body finally went limp. Then Riddick just stood, chest heaving, blades poised for the next onslaught but no one else emerged from the darkness that was now encircling he and Sunara in a five meter circle.

He turned and Sunara ran into his chest, trembling uncontrollably and making small whimpering sounds. He closed his eyes and breathed in her warm scent.

A deep laugh sounded from the end of the hallway and the remainder of the black fog receded. Riddick and Sunara looked up to see Lord Vaako standing with a Necro rifle in his hand aimed at Sunara. Crouching to his right was Lady Vaako with a grim smile on her face. She hissed menacingly at Sunara.

* * *

_AN: LOL. Sorry, BlckCat, but I love cliffhangers. I can't let you get bored with the story, can I?_


	27. Chapter 26

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Twenty-six

_NOTE: There is graphic violence in this segment. So, if it bothers you, close your eyes! lol Reminder, this story is rated T._

_I still don't own any characters from PB or COR. _

Vaako smile as he pulled the trigger aiming right for Sunara. Riddick pushed her hard away from him and she went down, back to a column. She felt the _whoosh_ of air as the blast past her and then the statue at the other end of the hallway shattered. Riddick roared and charged Vaako before he could aim again, thick arms bear hugging Vaako's waist to pick him up and slam him down on the ground. The rifle skittered to the left away from both their grasps. One of Riddick's daggers skittered the other direction and then they both quickly rolled to their feet.

At the same time, Lady Vaako lunged for Sunara running in three lopping steps. At the last step, the mad woman launched herself through the air intending to pounce on Sunara like some feline. Sunara knew she wouldn't have time to pick herself up off the ground, so instead she waited, still on her back. At the last second when Lady Vaako was committed to her pounce, Sunara extended her legs in front of her catching the woman in the stomach and pushing. Lady Vaako screamed as she flew several feet up and over Sunara, totally missing her mark. Her body continued through the air until her head connected with another column. There was s sickening crunch of a neck breaking and the woman's body fell in a unmoving heap.

Lord Vaako roared as he saw his wife fall. He and Riddick swung at each other, Riddick with only one blade. Lord Vaako didn't have the supernatural speed of the former Lord Marshall but he was still very strong. Riddick grunted as a punch connected with his belly, knocking some wind out him. He crouched and tried slashing up at Vaako, but Vaako sidestepped it. Riddick's lunge left him off balance and Vaako lifted a fist over his head, hammering down on Riddick who rolled out of the way at the last second.

Sunara watched frozen in horror, crouched on the floor. She could see Riddick was exhausted from taking out the twenty or so Believers earlier. His movements were slowing, and he panted hard as Vaako countered almost every blow. Her heart beat so hard in her chest she thought it would burst through her ribcage.

Vaako flipped Riddick who landed hard on his belly, the exhale loud enough for Sunara to hear. Riddick's lip and cheek were bloody, and his goggles had flown off. His chest heaved as he tried to get enough air in his lungs. Now his silvery eyes glittered at Vaako as he slowly grunted his way to his knees. Vaako reached for a discarded sword and gripped it tightly.

Vaako leered as he stood over Riddick. "Yes, kneel before me, Riddick. I told you before you could kneel under the right conditions." Vaako raised the sword over Riddick's head in an executioner's stance. " Now, kneel before the man who will kill you and take your wife as payment for killing mine."

A scream rose in Sunara's throat. But, before she could release it, she watched as Riddick's breathing stilled, his back straightened and the signs of exhaustion left him. Suddenly, she realized he had been faking it the entire time.

Riddick roared again as Vaako swung the sword over his head to make the killing strike. Riddick picked up Lord Vaako in his vise like arms and rushed him a few steps back. Then he raised his body up and impaled it on the barbed blade of the statue behind them. Vaako exhaled hard, a mix of madness, rage and confusion on his face. The sword in his hands was flung away as he grabbed Riddick's face in both hands and pulled it toward the protruding blade in his chest.

Now Sunara screamed.

Riddick and Vaako snarled at each other, each trying to win a battle of strength. Finally, Riddick got enough leverage to pull back his left fist and punch Vaako squarely in the face. The pain was enough distraction that he let go and Riddick stepped back, panting and growling.

"Riddick," Vaako panted, blood dribbling from his lips, "I will haunt you from here till UnderVerse comes."

Riddick grinned and his eyes glittered as he set a booted foot on Vaako's chest to the right of the blade tip. "I don't think so."

He stepped down hard. Vaako's body slid down the blade roughly to the crunching of bone and more of the point became exposed through his chest covered in blood and gore. Vaako gasped, blood rushed over his lips. Snarling and face twisted in rage, Riddick stepped down again but with his whole weight this time. The body finally went limp as it reached the hilt, dead eyes starring up at the ceiling.

Riddick turned away from the grisly sight and found Sunara still on the floor, sobbing in relief. Tears streaked her face as he reached her and knelt down to envelop her in his arms that threatened to crush her to him and make them one. He kissed her hard ignoring her split lip and then murmured to her that everything would be alright now. She shook badly as the adrenalin left her body, but Riddick clutched her to him as she gripped his shirt, sobbing into his shoulder.

Suddenly, Riddick looked up at the sound behind Sunara. Lady Vaako had dragged herself along the floor, head lolling unnaturally on her neck. She opened her blackened mouth and aimed for Sunara's foot. But, Riddick picked her up and twisted, thrusting her away and out of reach of the bite. Unfortunately, his own leg was within easily reach, so Lady Vaako changed direction and bit down on his left calf.

He roared as his calf instantly felt like it was on fire. He pulled his other leg forward and kicked the maddened woman hard in the face. She flew back, head hitting a sharp piece of the fractured statue. Her body lay unmoving, filmy eyes starring up at nothingness.

"No! NO!" Sunara screamed as Riddick hollered on the floor holding his calf. "Her bite is deadly."

Sunara frantically stripped off Riddick's belt and made a tourniquet as best she could hoping to slow the spread of the bacteria.

"We have to go, now, Riddick," she said as she tried to help haul Riddick to his feet.

Riddick looked back at Ayden's corpse and regretted not being able to take him with them. He hauled himself to his feet; his calf felt like a hot poker was digging into the muscle.

The corridors where littered with struggling bodies. Apparently, whatever dark magic animated the dead soldiers left them with Vaako's death. Armored bodies twitched in their second death throes as Sunara and Riddick limped past.

He grunted and hobbled along next to her; she trying to support his bulk as best she could. His skin turned feverish unnaturally quickly, and she could feel it burn through his arm around her shoulders and suddenly he was stumbling.

Riddick crashed to the floor, the pain making it hard to make his body move the way he wanted it to.

"Get up!" Sunara screamed. She yelped in pain as she tried to pull him to his feet, but her hands were hurting too badly.

He stumbled to his feet, panting hard, eyes turning glassy, sweat popping out all along his skin. He forgot where he was, who he was with and where they were going. Was that sweat in his eyes? Or, was it raining again? He looked at the woman yelling at him to keep moving.

_Carolyn?_...

_I said I would die for them, not for you, Riddick…_ And then she was gone.

Riddick collapsed on his hands and knees. Sunara screamed in frustration and fear as he went down.

"Not for me!" he raged in his delirious state. "_Not for me!_"

"NO! Riddick, you can't give up on me now."

Sunara tried to get him up, but her hands couldn't grip him. She tried reaching her arms to the elbows under his armpits and dragging him. It was slow going but she managed to pull him a few meters before she heard boots running towards them.

Frantically, she picked up a gun off one of the dead Believers. It shook so badly in her hand she had to use both hands, one to steady the gun, the other to hold the trigger. She wouldn't be able to hit anything like this, but she stood over Riddick's prone body anyway and prepared to kill whoever rounded the corner.


	28. Chapter 27

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Twenty-seven

Toal and another man ran around the corner only to come up short as he saw Sunara with the gun in her hands. She immediately threw the gun away and smiled in relief.

"He's been poisoned. I can't move him," she panted.

Toal strode over to Riddick and saw the glassy vague stare. Then he hauled him into a fireman's carry over his shoulder.

"Let's move!"

Sunara and the other soldier fell in behind Toal as he hustled down the corridors towards the landing bay. They encountered more writhing bodies but no one that presented an obstacle. When they reached the bay doors, Toal punched at the console and the doors slid open… into complete mayhem.

From the far side of the landing bay, Eve and her crew had taken cover behind crates near the ship and were firing at two very scared Believers positioned near the door. Around their feet were the bodies of their once animated comrades. The weapons Eve had stowed along the ship's underbelly had come in handy when the panicked guards started opening fire on Eve's crew blaming them for poisoning their now dead companions.

Toal pulled out his weapon and fired two shots at the soldiers without breaking stride. Their eyes were wide in surprise as they fell.

"It's about fucking time!" Eve hollered.

She and her men came out from behind the crates and headed for the ship nearly colliding with Toal's group.

"What happened to him?" Eve asked Toal, concern on her face.

"Poisoned," Toal replied. "You have about eight minutes to get us out of here."

Before Sunara climbed up the ramp, she saw someone still crouched behind the crates. Aereon stooped over Malenka's prone body holding her hand. Sunara rushed over and saw the tears in Aereon's eyes. Malenka's face was drawn and her breathing labored. Sunara knelt down and took her former mentor's remaining cold hand and Malenka smiled weakly.

"…sorry, my child," she whispered, "be happy…"

And then she was gone, her head lolling to the side and eyes closing. Sunara's tears ran down her face as she let the hand go gently to Malenka's side. Aereon released her friend as well and put her arm around Sunara's shoulders as she urged her toward the ship which was revving up.

"Belts on! It's gonna be a close one!" Eve called out.

Everyone who could find a seat and seatbelt fastened it quickly, but Riddick's body was stretched out on the floor. The ship began to hover off the deck and the bay doors opened once Eve typed in the command codes. She accelerated before the doors had even opened completely.

Time seemed to contract unnaturally. Outside the _Eras Fortis_, a fire fight had erupted. Riddick's Necro armada had engaged the Believers' fleet. However, several Believer ships seemed inactive, not firing on other ships and listing at odd angles. Obviously, a majority of Vaako's fleet had been made up of re-animated bodies. Now with Vaako dead, the remaining Believers were in chaos.

Eve suddenly turned sharply to avoid friendly fire and small attack ships swooped in to cover their escape. The explosion from Vaako's ship behind them pushed on the _Eras Fortis_ as the shockwave hit the craft and Eve gripped the controls tighter to control their drift. Pieces of debris clattered off the hull, but it took only a few minutes before Eve maneuvered the vessel into the landing bay of the Necropolis and set down quickly.

Once they had safely set down and the ship's doors opened, everything sped up in a blur. Medics swarmed the ship and loaded Riddick onto a stretcher. A thin sheen of sweat covered his body and soaked his clothes; his metallic eyes were glassy and unfocused. The wound on his calf already looked infected. The bite mark was black and blue and oozing a putrid slime while the veins up the leg looked angry and red. 

Sunara followed closely behind the medics until they entered the med-lab where one of the medics ushered Sunara to another bed and they started to clean her wrists. From where she was, she could see the medics working on Riddick, his pant leg cut away revealing spidery veins that went from black to deep purple and extended almost to his groin, her tourniquet useless.

She watched anxiously as they tried to clean and treat the wound. They injected him with high-dose multi-spectrum antibiotics and set him up on a drip as well. She felt helpless and became impatient as the medic bandaged her wrists and gave her an injection of a cocktail of antibiotics and pain meds. Sunara finally pushed away the medic that was trying to force her to lie down. He said he wanted to check on the baby, but she wouldn't be stopped and made her way to Riddick's bedside. The looks on the doctors' faces were grim.

"We'll have to see if he responds to the antibiotics," one of them said. "Otherwise…" He shrugged helplessly.

Sunara looked down at Riddick. His body was flushed and sweating profusely, and his chest rose and fell in short bursts. His eyes were finally closed, but she could see his eyeballs flickering under the surface, locked in a personal nightmare. She placed her hand on his burning forehead, her expression pained, and leaned over to whisper into his ear.

"You can't leave me now," she pleaded. "Please, Riddick. Fight this, fight for me."

He didn't seem to hear her, but she kept pleading anyway. Tears streaked her face.

"I want our child to know his father," she choked out. "Please... I love you."

She leaned down to kiss his dry lips and saw something on his chest flicker under the bed sheet. The medics had cut away Riddick's clothing, so he was naked under the thin sheet with cooling cells packed around his armpits and neck trying to reduce the fever. Sunara pushed down the sheet from his chest and saw the same glowing handprint that marked her chest and those of other Furyans. But, now it glowed dimly and seemed to extinguish in front of her eyes.

"No," Sunara breathed.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. Her hand on her own chest, she felt the mark throb through her hand. "Please, Mother, help me save the man I love." Then she placed her hand on top of the place where his mark should be.

Sunara gasped, her eyes flying open. She felt like she was caught in a whirlwind, the breath being sucked out of her body. It lasted only seconds and then she lost consciousness.


	29. Chapter 28

The Furyan's Return: Chapter Twenty-eight

_AN: Holy crap! 5000 hits! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Thanks also for the continued hits and people adding this story to their Favorites! _

_This is the final chapter, and it's a bit long, but I hope you like it._ _Feedback welcome! There is sexual content; rated T._

* * *

Sunara awoke suddenly and sat up in bed. She remembered the instant before she fainted that Riddick was dying. 

Aereon was hovering over her bed pushing Sunara back down. "Shh, it's alright. Don't move too quickly."

"Riddick?" she asked, her eyes wide and anxious. "Is he…?" She couldn't bring herself to say it.

Aereon smiled. "He is resting now. Whatever you did seemed to break his fever. The doctors think he should recover."

Sunara sighed in relief and laid back again. Her eyes closed and she said a silent prayer of gratitude.

"The doctor wants you on bed rest until we return to Furya. With all the excitement, he is worried about the baby."

"Is the baby alright?" She hadn't forgotten, but she had been preoccupied with trying to save the father. Her hand went to her curving stomach.

"Yes," Aereon replied with a gentle smile. "Just a precaution."

Sunara's stomach let out a fierce growl of hunger in reply. "I feel like I haven't eaten since the Fall." She grimaced.

But, Aereon laughed, her wise eyes crinkling. "That's just the beginning. Wait until you are as big as a house."

Sunara had to laugh too. It felt good to laugh, like a light had been turned on against the threatening darkness.

Aereon stood and smoothed her skirts. "I'll get you something to eat. You just stay right here."

After Aereon left, Sunara looked across the room to where she could still see Riddick laid out on another bed. His breathing looked slow and even, and his body wasn't covered in sweat; even the cooling packs had been removed. The monitors over him beeped in a steady rhythm.

Sunara felt her body relax a little more. If they made it back to Furya, she didn't care if he only gave her pieces of himself. She would take the crumbs gladly.

* * *

The trip back to Furya was blessedly uneventful. Riddick seemed to recover, but the damage had been severe. The bacteria had caused the muscle tissue to necrotize so badly that the doctors had to remove a large chunk of muscle. They suggested tissue grafts and regenerative gene therapy once the area was healed. And, the doctors reassured them that Sunara's pregnancy was coming along normally to the great relief of everyone. 

In the end, the Believers' ships were left without enough manpower to fight back. Riddick ordered that those who resisted quickly be killed. Any others who swore allegiance to him would be spared. Many of them took the deal especially after stories of Vaako complete madness circulated. Once Lady Vaako died, it seems he lost grip on reality and was known to execute his own crew to feed her ravenous appetite. Riddick also increased his armada by several dozen ships which had to be thoroughly cleaned of the re-animated bodies littering their corridors.

Today Aereon had come to Sunara's chambers to say good-bye. Riddick sat on a sofa, leg propped up on a table and supported by pillows. He had refused to stay in his sick bed longer than necessary, so Sunara had taken over as nurse for him. He was generally in a dark mood over being bed-ridden and not pleasant to be around most people. Thorn and Sid had refused to leave his side.

"There is nothing we can do?" Sunara asked.

Aereon shook her head. "The baron denies any direct involvement and he claims Captain Raine acted on his own. Raine isn't saying anything against his lord and, unfortunately, Riddick blew up whatever witnesses there were."

Riddick snorted unapologetically.

"Well, he has dropped the issue about the stolen ship once we returned it and the crew in one piece. If he was so innocent, I'd expect him to be more persistent," Sunara remarked.

"You're probably right. For now, just keep a close watch on him," Aereon said.

"You won't stay for the birth? You are welcome to," Sunara said.

"No, but thank you. I need to report to my own people that this quadrant of the galaxy is balanced again," Aereon said.

Riddick let out a sharp laugh and his eyes glittered in the dim light of the room. "Elementals and your balance. You're still a bunch of spies." He said it without malice and Aereon smiled slyly.

"With my homeworld no longer threatened and the House of Furya secure once again, we can move on to other concerns," Aereon remarked.

"You and your people are welcome here anytime, Aereon," Sunara said graciously.

Aereon thanked her and bowed to Riddick as she said good-bye.

Sunara walked with Aereon out of the palace into the bright sunshine of midday. Sunara waited until Aereon's luggage was packed aboard a Necro ship that would transport her home. Then Sunara turned to her very seriously.

"You were wrong about what you said that day on Helion Prime," Sunara said quietly to Aereon. "You were wrong about Riddick, about Furyans"

Aereon raised an eyebrow quizzically and waited.

"You said sometimes evil must be fought with another kind of evil," Sunara said with a slight smile. "But, I don't believe that. Furyans are the light that keeps the darkness at bay when all else fails."

Aereon cocked her head to one side thinking that over. Then she nodded in acceptance.

"May your future be bright and full of blessings," Aereon said and hugged Sunara tightly.

Sunara hugged the old woman back with genuine warmth. "Good journey and thank you for everything, Aereon."

When the women pulled apart, both their eyes were glistening with unshed tears.

* * *

Riddick hated being inactive. He tried to continue glowering as Sunara returned to her chamber, but he couldn't seem to hold on to his dark mood. She looked so beautiful as she entered the room smiling serenely. Sunara sat next to him and leaned in to kiss him gently. Damn, but if she didn't still taste like sun-sweetened melon. He would never understand how she did that. 

"You saved me," she murmured against his lips.

"You saved me back," he replied huskily.

Suddenly Sunara drew back from him, a look of mock seriousness on her face. "Please don't tell me this is how our lives together will always be."

Riddick roared with laughter and saw Sunara's sly smile. "I hope not! My body can't tolerate getting bitten, shot at and stabbed forever."

"No more adventures?" she asked.

Riddick regarded her for a moment and saw the concern in her eyes. "I think I have all the adventure I need right here." He pulled her across his lap. He took her chin in his grasp and looked into her eyes. "You have all of me."

Sunara's eyes widened in surprise. She knew he was referring to what she had said during their fight before she'd been abducted. "You – you don't have to. I've learned to accept whatever part of you you're willing to share with me."

"You have me body and soul, Nara," he replied.

Sunara's heart skipped in happiness. "And, I am with you... always."

Then he kissed her deeply in the way that made her body tingle all the way from her head to her toes. She moaned into his mouth and wrapped her arms around his neck hugging him tightly. Their kisses became more and more heated. Riddick finally pulled back some, panting.

"What about the baby?" he said in a thick voice.

Sunara laughed and looked him in the face. "I'm pregnant, not dying. The doctor said it should be fine... as long as we're gentle." Her hand caressed the curve of his jaw. "What about your leg?" she countered.

Now Riddick laughed. "I'm injured, not dying. But, you will have to do most of the work." he grinned slyly.

They resumed their frenzied kissing until Sunara rose from his lap and led him limping to the bed where she carefully disrobe him and then herself. She kissed and nibbled his skin in all the sensitive places driving him wild, and enjoying his helplessness until he growled and pulled her lithe body on top of his. His hand on the back of her head pushed her lips to his in a kiss that threatened to melt the both of them. He could feel her excitement as he slid home and their bodies began to move in unison.

"Riddick... I love you," Sunara whimpered.

"I love you, Sunara," he gasped.

In those three short words, all her doubts and all his ghosts evaporated until there was nothing left but each other. They surrendered one to the other so neither was in control, neither holding back. When they came together, Sunara was overwhelmed with emotions of love and gratitude that this man should fill her so completely. She sobbed into Riddick's chest and all he could do was just held her tighter murmuring reassurances until she calmed down.

Riddick didn't understand how an beautiful, intelligent, strong-willed woman like Sunara could ever love him, a convict and killer. He didn't try to understand it; he just accepted it and was grateful for some peace, some sense of freedom from the years of running. Maybe there were miracles in the universe after all.

Sunara clung to Riddick in the afterglow, head on his broad chest, arms and legs wrapped around his torso as she laid next to him. His hand idly stroked her arm, down to her hips and then around to stop where her stomach had already begun to swell.

"We have to come up with a name," he said, his lips resting on her forehead.

Sunara laughed and pulled back to see his full face. "We have to think of _names_," she emphasized.

"Names?" Riddick's brows furrowed, and he looked down where his hand rested on her belly. He looked up at her grinning face in realization. "_Twins?_"

THE END

_AN: OK, the last part is an homage to Vin Diesel who is in fact a fraternal twin. And, it works into the epilogue._

_I see lots of hits and no one giving feedback. Did it blow chunks that badly? If so, what would you have me fix?  
_

* * *

_A very personal note..._

_I started this story at a very low-point in my life when I found myself an orphan of sorts myself. I was isolating myself and feeling depressed. But, writing this story out, reading the feedback, seeing the numbers of hits and alerts, made me feel a little more connected to people. When I was much younger, I used to write, but I grew up and life got busier. I forgot how much I enjoyed it._

_So when I say THANK YOU to MarsLover, Amita4ever, Blckcat and all the others who read my story, I really really mean it. I still have a ways to go fighting my depression but you guys have really helped in that process. Bright blessings to all... Starnyx._


	30. Chapter 29

The Furyan's Return: Epilogue

_AN: Thanks for all the feedback. I have no plans on a sequel. However, if someone has an idea they want to take off with using my characters, contact me. I still do not own any part of PB/COR.  
_

* * *

_Criminal… convict … murderer… killer… _and my personal favorite _The Big Evil…_

Those were the tamest titles people gave him. When I was a child, such disparaging remarks were made quietly, supposedly so I wouldn't hear. Later, they were made more openly. Yet, whatever names people called him, he was always _Father_ to me.

The wound my father suffered to his calf from Lady Vaako left him with a slight limp that grew worse in his older years. Despite the many reconstructive surgeries to the muscle, the bacteria had seemed to permanently damage the surrounding tissue. But, he was no less an imposing figure for his limp. I think it even added to his public image of the tough-as-nails warrior.

After my birth, he trained select groups of soldiers in hand-to-hand combat and made them into elite palace guard. They were so celebrated for their skills that other governments requested my father's expertise. He often traveled to other planets to help train their military and consult on security issues. In military circles, he was well respected for his fighting skills... Ironic, since he never served in anyone's army but his own.

That image of the battle-hardened warrior is decidedly _not_ how I remember him, however. With me and my siblings, he was always loving and gentle if not stern. He rarely ever raised his voice to us unless we _really_ deserved it. He had an easy laugh and easier smile especially anytime he was near my mother.

For as much fear and respect as my father garnered, my mother was well-loved. She was the epitome of grace and kindness. She had a way of speaking to people that made them feel as if she was talking only to them whether in political speeches in a holo-cast or personal meetings. She could appeal to the noblest parts of humanity and get people to act. No matter how much I try to emulate her example, that talent has always eluded me. And, despite her royal birth, she never forgot that she was an orphan. Her charities related to orphans and their education remain some of the most impressive in all the galaxies. She made it a matter of Furyan pride which is one reason Furya itself become a beacon to displaced people from all over.

My mother did rebuild the temple and named it the Temple of Light. She recovered as many tomes as she could from the temple on Kha Maruk and even received generous donations from other planets. It become so well-known for its libraries that people from several galaxies would travel to our planet to conduct research. It is still one of my favorite childhood memories: going to the temple with my mother while she delved into books and scrolls. She would get lost in them for hours and I was never bored, first looking at illuminated manuscripts and guessing at the pictures, and later reading the histories and knowledge of dozens of worlds. I still prefer the smell and feel of vellum and paper over plasti-sheet readouts.

When we were children, there would be times when my father would enter into a brooding state that would last sometimes for several days. I would catch him looking at me intensely with a far-away look in his eyes. I think he must have been remembering my namesake, and it always pained him a little. Once I asked my mother why Father got so sad.

"Your father sometimes has nightmares," Mother said with a sad smile.

"Nightmares?" My seven-year-old self couldn't imagine my big strapping father having scary dreams. "Nightmares about what?"

"Monsters and demons from his past," she'd replied.

Then he would seem to snap out of his melancholy and wrap us kids in a great bear hug that threatened to crush us. We would wrestle him to the ground in a giggling heap. It wasn't until they both passed away that I found sealed records about the crash on M6-117 and understood what she meant about the monsters. It gave me a better understanding of my father and why he loved his family with the same fierceness with which he approached everything he did.

My parents adored each other; there was no question of that. As a child, I used to be embarrassed by their obvious affections. As I got older and was included in more political functions, I observed the behavior of other royals and dignitaries. There were mistresses or lovers accompanying everyone from prime ministers to princesses. Philandering seemed as common to some as breathing. Then I realized how fortunate I was to have parents who truly loved each other. Mother used to say that he was her first everything. When my father finally passed, she was heart-broken. I was the only one not surprised when she joined him two years later.

Following in the tradition of previous Furyan royal families, the crown was passed to me as the eldest daughter, and my twin brother, Jack, was named co-reagent. However, he is happy to let me deal with the day-to-day running of the planet. He never had any interest in politics, preferring instead his laboratory and inventions. There were several times playing as children when he would create the most intricate toys: robotic pets that ambled on their own and flying machines that he loved to use to spy on me as a teenager. He often got in trouble for dismantling and reassembling mechanical items around the palace. He called them 'improvements.' Now, he is the foremost expert on the Necromonger technology that has been used all over the planet for civilian as well as military use.

My younger siblings have fewer responsibilities and more freedom than we do, and they have taken full advantage of it. Malenka, the next in line to the throne, has chosen to devote herself to medicine. I think she inherited our mother's nurturing side. She teaches medical science at the university besides keeping up a surgical practice.

Ayden, my middle brother, studied military science and took over the special training for Furyan elite forces after my father retired. He showed his military talent even as a young boy, hanging around with the palace guard, picking up on tactics so that when my father and mother finally consented to allow him martial training, he excelled quickly. I believe Ayden was secretly my father's favorite. For as encouraging as he was towards Jack's inventions, he did not understand Jack's need to figure out the inner workings of things. But, my father easily understood violence and combat.

I worry for my last brother, Nevaar. As the youngest of our brood, he seems to still be searching for his place in the universe. He dropped out of university after the first year. He said he wanted to travel a bit before settling down, but he probably says that just to placate me. I think he inherited his wanderlust from our father. I live vicariously through his communiqués, though. The exotic places he visits, the diversity of people he meets. He writes with such passion, his descriptions so vivid that I feel as if I am there experiencing it all with him. Sometimes I do wish I could join him.

But in the end, I am happy with my life, with my lot. I have the great good fortune to have married someone who loves me for me, not for my title. Imam and I have known each other for so long that marrying anyone else was never even considered. He knows all my secrets, all my fears. And, now we have a beautiful baby girl who will one day rule as I do.

In Light and Love,

_Kyra __Shirrah-zen __il-Sunara al-Riddick  
_

_Queen and Co-Reagent of Furya_

* * *


	31. Possible new story

After a few years hiatus struggling with an original story between switching jobs, a new fanfic has burned its way into my brain; this time a Black Dagger Brotherhood story (JR Ward's creation). Like The Furyan Returned, it wrote itself. Hopefully, that means I have the time to get it out of my head. Here's a brief summary… Hope you like. Look for it soon in the Misc. Books section. Tentative title is Lover Redeemed. ~Starnyx 12/18/13

A love story of addiction and redemption set after Lover At Last – Dhurge is a soldier for Xcor who seeks to overthrow the rightful king of the vampires, Wrath. Wrath has the proof he needs finally to execute Xcor and destroy his Band of Bastards. As one of the Bastards, Dhurge will probably be put to death, after a brutal interrogation, if the Black Dagger Brotherhood ever get their hands on him. But, he does just that when he finds a pretrans female at a bus station, overdosed and clearly hallucinating.

Darla is a 24-year-old junkie hanging on to the underbelly of Caldwell, New York. Having grown up on the streets, she's seen things that would make the hardest Caldie cop queasy. It's New Year's Eve when Darla finds herself on the Caldie bus station restroom floor shooting up her next fix. As she sinks into what she thinks is her last sunset haze, a hulking angel appears and, suddenly, she doesn't want to die. For better or worse, she makes a decision that could save her life and condemn another's.


End file.
